Empowered Funds LLC Buys Shares of 161,377 Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 161,377 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,318,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ITUB. Bamco Inc. NY purchased a new stake in shares of Itau Unibanco during the second quarter valued at $686,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Itau Unibanco by 111.9% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,293,618 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $182,139,000 after acquiring an additional 11,771,394 shares during the period. Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Itau Unibanco in the second quarter worth approximately $2,288,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 15.0% in the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 990,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,088,000 after acquiring an additional 129,149 shares during the period. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 94.9% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 102,640 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $839,000 after purchasing an additional 49,972 shares during the last quarter.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.24, for a total value of $494,400.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,008,014 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,306,035.36. This trade represents a 5.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $10.00.

Itau Unibanco Stock Performance

ITUB opened at $8.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $8.02 and its 200 day moving average is $8.24. 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 company has a market cap of $90.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.66, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.56. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a 12-month low of $6.54 and a 12-month high of $9.60.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.29 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.88 EPS for the current year.

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.