William Blair Investment Management LLC Boosts Holdings in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 29,470,195 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 191,733 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Itau Unibanco were worth $216,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MAI Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Itau Unibanco during the second quarter worth $41,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Itau Unibanco by 332.4% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,966 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 5,355 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp acquired a new stake in Itau Unibanco in the 3rd quarter valued at about $60,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 12,022 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $88,000 after buying an additional 1,790 shares during the period. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD acquired a new position in shares of Itau Unibanco during the third quarter worth about $90,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on ITUB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Itau Unibanco in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. One 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.00.

Itau Unibanco Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:ITUB opened at $9.05 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.44. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a twelve month low of $4.73 and a twelve month high of $9.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.61. The company has a market capitalization of $100.19 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.62.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $8.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.98 billion. Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 20.64% and a return on equity of 20.83%. On average, equities analysts predict that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Itau Unibanco Dividend Announcement

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

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.