Vontobel Holding Ltd. Acquires 6,501 Shares of Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) by 38.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,478 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,501 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Itaú Unibanco were worth $116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ITUB. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 12,592.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,484,343 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $156,171,000 after acquiring an additional 23,299,313 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Itaú Unibanco during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,685,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 6.1% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,587,633 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $336,408,000 after acquiring an additional 2,886,508 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 5.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 50,829,515 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $338,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,604,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 38.8% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,367,875 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,346,000 after acquiring an additional 1,779,300 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on ITUB. UBS Group upgraded Itaú Unibanco from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res raised Itaú Unibanco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. HSBC raised Itaú Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6.80 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Itaú Unibanco from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $6.90.

Itaú Unibanco Price Performance

Shares of ITUB stock opened at $5.73 on Friday. Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. has a twelve month low of $4.86 and a twelve month high of $7.07. The stock has a market cap of $56.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.34, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s fifty day moving average is $5.42 and its 200 day moving average is $5.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32.

Itaú Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The bank reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.01). Itaú Unibanco had a return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 12.25%. Research analysts expect that Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Itaú Unibanco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.058 per share. This is an increase from Itaú Unibanco’s previous dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 19th. Itaú Unibanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 73.08%.

Itaú Unibanco Company Profile

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA offers a range of financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Activities with the Market + Corporation. It offers current account; loans; credit and debit cards; investment and commercial banking services; real estate lending services; financing and investment services; economic, financial and brokerage advisory; and leasing and foreign exchange services.