Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 846,456 Shares of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) by 386.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,065,538 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 846,456 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Itau Unibanco were worth $7,629,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 104.3% in the second quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 84,543,938 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $574,053,000 after purchasing an additional 43,153,787 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 4.9% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 74,529,975 shares of the bank’s stock worth $546,305,000 after acquiring an additional 3,511,303 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 9.5% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 61,131,445 shares of the bank’s stock worth $448,705,000 after acquiring an additional 5,279,282 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 58,581,150 shares of the bank’s stock worth $419,441,000 after acquiring an additional 956,962 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 0.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 41,387,090 shares of the bank’s stock worth $303,781,000 after acquiring an additional 369,474 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ITUB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Itau Unibanco from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Itau Unibanco currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Itau Unibanco news, insider Fajerman Sergio Guillinet sold 39,477 shares of Itau Unibanco stock in a transaction on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $9.53, for a total transaction of $376,215.81. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,205,642 shares in the company, valued at $11,489,768.26. The trade was a 3.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Rodrigues Andre Luis Teixeira sold 182,800 shares of Itau Unibanco stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.82, for a total transaction of $1,612,296.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 1,637,511 shares in the company, valued at $14,442,847.02. This represents a 10.04% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 292,277 shares of company stock worth $2,646,512 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Itau Unibanco Stock Up 0.1%

ITUB opened at $7.55 on Monday. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $5.93 and a fifty-two week high of $9.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.53, a current ratio of 1.79 and a quick ratio of 1.79. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $8.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $8.11. The company has a market capitalization of $83.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.35, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.59.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The bank reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.02). Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 21.27% and a net margin of 27.27%.The business had revenue of $9.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.41 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.89 EPS for the current year.

Itau Unibanco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a special dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.068 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 22nd. Itau Unibanco’s payout ratio is currently 4.11%.

Itau Unibanco Company Profile

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.