Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB Position Decreased by Perpetual Ltd

Key Points

• Perpetual Ltd cut its Itaú Unibanco stake by 98.2% in the third quarter, selling 6.27 million shares and retaining 117,913 shares valued at approximately $1.0 million.
• Other major institutions increased their positions, including Bank of America, Carmignac Gestion, HSBC, Lazard Asset Management and Amundi.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive overall, with a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating and an average price target of $9.87, although the latest quarterly results slightly missed earnings and revenue expectations.

Perpetual Ltd reduced its stake in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB - Free Report) by 98.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 117,913 shares of the bank's stock after selling 6,271,028 shares during the quarter. Perpetual Ltd's holdings in Itau Unibanco were worth $1,006,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ITUB. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 3,589,092 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,611,094 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,202,138 shares of the bank's stock valued at $43,594,000 after buying an additional 58,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its holdings in shares of 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.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ITUB shares. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $10.50 price target (up from $9.30) on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, HSBC lowered Itau Unibanco from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $9.10 price target for the company. in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $9.87.

Itau Unibanco Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of ITUB opened at $9.89 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $109.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.16, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $6.59 and a fifty-two week high of $10.20. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $8.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.26.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.29 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current 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.

Itau Unibanco 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.

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