Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) Stock Price Up 6.5% – Here’s What Happened

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) shares rose 6.5% during mid-day trading 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 daily volume of 23,843,590 shares. The stock had previously closed at $8.09.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.00.

Itau Unibanco Price Performance

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 stock has a market cap of $94.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $7.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.15.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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). Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 21.40% and a net margin of 26.41%.The firm had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.29 billion. Research analysts expect that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.87 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Itau Unibanco

In other news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.38, for a total transaction of $625,508.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 933,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,821,648.98. This trade represents a 7.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Itau Unibanco

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 144,370 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,180,000 after buying an additional 13,784 shares during the last quarter. IPG Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Itau Unibanco in the second quarter valued at about $159,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 19.5% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 878,443 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,177,000 after acquiring an additional 143,650 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 300.6% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 312,133 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,550,000 after acquiring an additional 234,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Carmignac Gestion raised its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 41.6% during the second quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank’s stock worth $99,832,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589,092 shares in the last quarter.

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.