SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda Increases Stake in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) by 111.1% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,674,082 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 880,902 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco comprises approximately 1.0% of SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda’s portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda’s holdings in Itau Unibanco were worth $12,288,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oaktree Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Itau Unibanco by 58.5% in the second quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 11,004,494 shares of the bank’s stock worth $74,721,000 after acquiring an additional 4,063,482 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 6,868,048 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,079,178 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 65.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 161,847 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 63,920 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 39.6% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 57,624,188 shares of the bank’s stock worth $422,962,000 after purchasing an additional 16,339,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Todd Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 5.3% during the third quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 6,162,981 shares of the bank’s stock worth $45,236,000 after purchasing an additional 311,472 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ITUB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Itau Unibanco from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Itau Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Itau Unibanco has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $9.00.

Itau Unibanco Stock Down 1.3%

ITUB opened at $8.15 on Friday. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a one year low of $4.91 and a one year high of $9.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.63. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $8.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $7.49.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.98 billion. Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 20.64% and a return on equity of 20.83%. Analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Itau Unibanco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a special dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 23rd will be issued a $0.068 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 23rd. Itau Unibanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.29%.

About Itau Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco SA (NYSE: ITUB) is a Brazilian banking and financial services conglomerate headquartered in São Paulo. The company was formed by the merger of Banco Itaú and Unibanco in 2008 and is one of the largest private-sector banks in Brazil and among the leading banks in Latin America. Itaú Unibanco is publicly listed in Brazil and maintains an international listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The bank offers a full range of financial products and services across retail, commercial and wholesale banking.