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

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders purchased 2,797 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 152% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,109 call options.

Itau Unibanco Stock Performance

Itau Unibanco stock opened at $9.91 on Tuesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $109.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.50. Itau Unibanco has a 1-year low of $6.54 and a 1-year high of $10.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $8.03 and a 200-day moving average of $8.18.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last announced its quarterly 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). The business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.29 billion. Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 21.40%. Sell-side analysts expect that Itau Unibanco will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ITUB shares. Weiss Ratings lowered Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.00.

Insider Transactions at Itau Unibanco

In other Itau Unibanco news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of Itau Unibanco stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.38, for a total value of $625,508.34. Following the transaction, 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Itau Unibanco

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 10.6% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 144,370 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,180,000 after acquiring an additional 13,784 shares in the last quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Itau Unibanco in the second quarter valued at $159,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its position in Itau Unibanco by 19.5% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 878,443 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,177,000 after purchasing an additional 143,650 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in Itau Unibanco by 300.6% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,133 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,550,000 after purchasing an additional 234,214 shares during the period. Finally, Carmignac Gestion raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 3,589,092 shares in 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.