Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on ITUB. HSBC cut Itau Unibanco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $9.10 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $10.50 target price (up from $9.30) on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research note on Friday, October 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.87.

Itau Unibanco Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE ITUB opened at $9.45 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $8.29. Itau Unibanco has a twelve month low of $6.63 and a twelve month high of $10.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44. The company has a market capitalization of $104.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.50.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.01). Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 21.40% and a net margin of 26.41%. The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.29 billion. Research analysts forecast that Itau Unibanco will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Itau Unibanco news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.38, for a total value of $625,508.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 933,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,821,648.98. The trade was a 7.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of ITUB. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 111.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,293,618 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $182,139,000 after acquiring an additional 11,771,394 shares during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion boosted its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 41.6% during the 2nd quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $99,832,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589,092 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 32.4% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 6,579,735 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $55,088,000 after acquiring an additional 1,611,094 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Itau Unibanco by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,202,138 shares of the bank’s stock worth $43,594,000 after acquiring an additional 58,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its position in Itau Unibanco by 32.1% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 5,286,501 shares of the bank’s stock worth $43,191,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283,503 shares during the last quarter.

About Itau Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA is a financial services company headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, and one of the largest banking groups in Latin America. The company provides banking and financial products to individuals, small and midsize businesses, large corporations and institutional clients through digital channels and a network of branches and service locations.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgages, credit cards, insurance, investment products, asset management, foreign exchange and payment services.