Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) Stock Has Average Price Target of $9.87

Key Points

• Five analysts give Itaú Unibanco a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating: three recommend buying and two recommend holding. Their average 12-month price target is $9.87.
• Recent analyst views were mixed: Goldman Sachs reiterated “buy” and raised its target to $10.50, while HSBC downgraded the stock to “hold” with a $9.10 target.
• The bank’s latest quarterly results slightly missed expectations, reporting EPS of $0.21 versus a $0.22 estimate and revenue of $9.49 billion versus $9.57 billion expected.

Shares of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the five research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $9.87.

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on ITUB shares. Wall Street Zen raised Itau Unibanco to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, October 17th. HSBC downgraded Itau Unibanco from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $9.10 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Itau Unibanco from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Friday, October 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated 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.

Insider Buying and Selling at Itau Unibanco

In other Itau Unibanco news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 933,371 shares in the company, valued at $7,821,648.98. This represents a 7.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Itau Unibanco

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted 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 worth $182,139,000 after buying an additional 11,771,394 shares during the period. Carmignac Gestion increased its stake in Itau Unibanco by 41.6% in the 2nd quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank's stock worth $99,832,000 after buying an additional 3,589,092 shares in the last quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP increased its stake in Itau Unibanco by 14.7% in the 3rd quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP now owns 8,612,478 shares of the bank's stock worth $73,464,000 after buying an additional 1,103,340 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 32.4% during the first 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. Finally, Amundi raised its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 32.1% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 5,286,501 shares of the bank's stock valued at $43,191,000 after acquiring an additional 1,283,503 shares during the period.

Itau Unibanco Price Performance

Shares of Itau Unibanco stock opened at $7.40 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $81.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.42, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.51. The stock's fifty day moving average is $8.48 and its 200 day moving average is $8.35. Itau Unibanco has a one year low of $6.82 and a one year high of $10.20.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $9.49 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 26.19% and a return on equity of 21.45%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current year.

About Itau Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco is a Brazilian financial services company headquartered in São Paulo. It was formed in 2008 through the merger of Banco Itaú and Unibanco and serves individuals, businesses and institutional clients. The company provides retail and commercial banking services, including deposit accounts, loans, credit cards and payment solutions. Its other activities include investment banking, asset and wealth management, insurance and related financial services. Itaú Unibanco operates primarily in Brazil and also has a presence in other markets in Latin America and internationally.

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.