Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB)

Key Points

• Unusual options activity: Traders purchased 2,797 call options on Itau Unibanco, roughly 152% above the stock’s typical daily call volume.
• Shares surged 15.7%: ITUB reached $9.94 on unusually heavy trading volume, approaching its 52-week high of $10.19.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive: The stock has a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating and a $10.00 target price, although the company recently narrowly missed quarterly earnings and revenue estimates.

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 2,797 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 152% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,109 call options.

Itau Unibanco Stock Up 15.7%

NYSE ITUB traded up $1.34 during trading on Monday, reaching $9.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 54,360,967 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,333,143. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.04 billion, a PE ratio of 13.03, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $8.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.16. Itau Unibanco has a 1-year low of $6.54 and a 1-year high of $10.19.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The bank reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.22 by ($0.01). Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 21.40% and a net margin of 26.41%.The business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.29 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Itau Unibanco will post 0.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ITUB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Itau Unibanco has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $10.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Itau Unibanco

In other news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the 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 sale, the insider directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Itau Unibanco

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its position in Itau Unibanco by 19.5% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 878,443 shares of the bank's stock worth $7,177,000 after purchasing an additional 143,650 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 111.9% in the second 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 during the period. 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 purchasing an additional 1,283,503 shares during the period. Carmignac Gestion raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 41.6% in the second quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank's stock valued at $99,832,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589,092 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 552.4% in the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 150,483 shares of the bank's stock worth $1,229,000 after buying an additional 127,417 shares during the last quarter.

About Itau Unibanco

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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