Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) Shares Climb 6.5% – What’s Next?

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB)’s share price rose 6.5% on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $8.56 and last traded at $8.6150. Approximately 27,033,500 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 13% from the average session volume of 23,843,590 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped 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 assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Itau Unibanco has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.00.

Itau Unibanco Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $93.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.03, a PEG ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.50. The company’s fifty day moving average is $7.99 and its 200 day moving average is $8.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued 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). The business had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.29 billion. Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 21.40% and a net margin of 26.41%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Itau Unibanco

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

Institutional Trading of Itau Unibanco

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ITUB. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Itau Unibanco by 111.9% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Carmignac Gestion raised its stake in Itau Unibanco by 41.6% in the 2nd quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $99,832,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589,092 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 63,525,566 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $454,843,000 after purchasing an additional 2,394,121 shares during the last quarter. NS Partners Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Itau Unibanco in the second quarter valued at $17,019,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Itau Unibanco in the fourth quarter valued at about $13,907,000.

Itau Unibanco Company 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.