Walleye Capital LLC Trims Holdings in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

Key Points

• Walleye Capital LLC significantly reduced its position in Itau Unibanco, trimming its stake by 97.7% during the first quarter, leaving them with only 17,987 shares valued at approximately $99,000.
• Despite Walleye Capital's reduction, other institutional investors, such as Parallel Advisors LLC and Alta Capital Management LLC, have increased their stakes, indicating a mixed sentiment among investors.
• Itau Unibanco recently announced a monthly dividend of $0.0454 per share, marking a significant increase from its previous dividend and reflecting a solid annualized yield of 7.7%.

Walleye Capital LLC lessened its stake in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB - Free Report) by 97.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,987 shares of the bank's stock after selling 765,981 shares during the quarter. Walleye Capital LLC's holdings in Itau Unibanco were worth $99,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ITUB. GQG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 738.6% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 77,734,889 shares of the bank's stock valued at $427,542,000 after purchasing an additional 68,465,514 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 311.4% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,584,177 shares of the bank's stock valued at $126,898,000 after acquiring an additional 19,365,644 shares during the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Itau Unibanco during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $71,054,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 241.2% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,221,235 shares of the bank's stock valued at $45,219,000 after acquiring an additional 5,811,939 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 127.2% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 6,290,328 shares of the bank's stock valued at $31,200,000 after acquiring an additional 3,521,518 shares during the last quarter.

Itau Unibanco Stock Performance

NYSE:ITUB traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $7.06. The stock had a trading volume of 22,352,871 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,605,644. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.59. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $6.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $6.24. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a 12-month low of $4.42 and a 12-month high of $7.23. The stock has a market cap of $76.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 0.86.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The bank reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.18. Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 19.48% and a net margin of 14.05%.The business had revenue of $7.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $44.75 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Itau Unibanco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be given a $0.0454 dividend. This is an increase from Itau Unibanco's previous monthly dividend of $0.00. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Itau Unibanco's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.23%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $6.27.

Itau Unibanco Profile

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA offers a range of financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Activities with the Market + Corporation. It offers current account; loans; credit and debit cards; investment and commercial banking services; real estate lending services; financing and investment services; economic, financial and brokerage advisory; and leasing and foreign exchange services.