Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) Price Target Raised to $9.00

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) had its target price upped by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $8.00 to $9.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the bank’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on ITUB. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Itau Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Itau Unibanco presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $9.00.

Itau Unibanco Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of NYSE ITUB opened at $9.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $105.37 billion, a PE ratio of 13.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.61. Itau Unibanco has a 12-month low of $4.73 and a 12-month high of $9.60. The company has a 50-day moving average of $7.98 and a 200 day moving average of $7.34.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.03). Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 20.83% and a net margin of 20.64%.The company had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.98 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Itau Unibanco will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Itau Unibanco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.0032 per share. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 2nd. Itau Unibanco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.29%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Itau Unibanco

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ITUB. GQG Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 96,959,405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $694,229,000 after purchasing an additional 5,737,696 shares during the period. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in Itau Unibanco by 104.3% during the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 84,543,938 shares of the bank’s stock worth $574,053,000 after purchasing an additional 43,153,787 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 4.9% during the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 74,529,975 shares of the bank’s stock worth $546,305,000 after buying an additional 3,511,303 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 63,525,566 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $454,843,000 after buying an additional 2,394,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 10.5% in the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 61,497,171 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $417,566,000 after buying an additional 5,828,296 shares during the period.

About Itau Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco SA (NYSE: ITUB) is a Brazilian banking and financial services conglomerate headquartered in São Paulo. The company was formed by the merger of Banco Itaú and Unibanco in 2008 and is one of the largest private-sector banks in Brazil and among the leading banks in Latin America. Itaú Unibanco is publicly listed in Brazil and maintains an international listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

The bank offers a full range of financial products and services across retail, commercial and wholesale banking.