Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) Raised to "Hold" at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded Itaú Unibanco to “Hold,” while the broader analyst consensus remains “Moderate Buy,” with three Buy ratings and two Hold ratings and an average price target of $9.87.
• ITUB shares opened at $9.45, near the upper end of their 12-month range of $6.63 to $10.20. The bank’s latest quarterly results slightly missed expectations, reporting $0.21 EPS versus the $0.22 consensus and $9.27 billion in revenue.
• Several major institutional investors increased their positions, including Bank of America, Carmignac Gestion, HSBC, Lazard Asset Management and Amundi; an insider separately sold 74,643 shares.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Itau Unibanco from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. HSBC lowered shares of Itau Unibanco from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $9.10 target price on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $10.50 target price (up from $9.30) on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research note on Friday, October 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $9.87.

Itau Unibanco Stock Down 0.6%

Itau Unibanco stock opened at $9.45 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $104.62 billion, a PE ratio of 12.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.29. Itau Unibanco has a 12 month low of $6.63 and a 12 month high of $10.20.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 21.40%. The business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.29 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco will post 0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Itau Unibanco

In other Itau Unibanco news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.38, for a total transaction of $625,508.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 933,371 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,821,648.98. This represents a 7.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Itau Unibanco

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 11,771,394 shares in the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion boosted its stake in Itau Unibanco by 41.6% during the 2nd quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank's stock worth $99,832,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589,092 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 32.4% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 6,579,735 shares of the bank's stock worth $55,088,000 after buying an additional 1,611,094 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 1.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,202,138 shares of the bank's stock worth $43,594,000 after buying an additional 58,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 32.1% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 5,286,501 shares of the bank's stock valued at $43,191,000 after buying an additional 1,283,503 shares during the last quarter.

Itau Unibanco Company Profile

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA is a Brazil-based financial services company and one of the largest private-sector banking groups in Latin America. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ITUB, while its principal operations are based in Brazil.

The company provides a broad range of banking and financial products for individuals, businesses and institutional clients. Its services include checking and savings accounts, consumer and commercial lending, credit and debit cards, payments, insurance, investment products, wealth management, foreign exchange and investment banking.

Itaú Unibanco was created in 2008 through the merger of Banco Itaú and Unibanco.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.