Natural Investments LLC Acquires New Position in Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB)

Natural Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 89,744 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $445,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC boosted its position in Itaú Unibanco by 12,592.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 23,484,343 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $156,171,000 after buying an additional 23,299,313 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,685,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 6.1% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 50,587,633 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $336,408,000 after purchasing an additional 2,886,508 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Itaú Unibanco by 5.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 50,829,515 shares of the bank’s stock worth $338,016,000 after acquiring an additional 2,604,304 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in Itaú Unibanco by 38.8% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 6,367,875 shares of the bank’s stock worth $42,346,000 after purchasing an additional 1,779,300 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. UBS Group raised Itaú Unibanco from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Itaú Unibanco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Itaú Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6.80 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $6.90.

Itaú Unibanco Stock Performance

Itaú Unibanco stock opened at $5.65 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $55.33 billion, a PE ratio of 7.24, a P/E/G ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.34. Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $4.86 and a fifty-two week high of $7.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $5.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.88.

Itaú Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The bank reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.01). Itaú Unibanco had a return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 12.25%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Itaú Unibanco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.058 per share. This is an increase from Itaú Unibanco’s previous dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 19th. Itaú Unibanco’s payout ratio is 2.56%.

About Itaú Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA offers a range of financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Activities with the Market + Corporation. It offers current account; loans; credit and debit cards; investment and commercial banking services; real estate lending services; financing and investment services; economic, financial and brokerage advisory; and leasing and foreign exchange services.