Freedom Investment Management Inc. Sells 718 Shares of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. lessened its stake in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 12,923 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 718 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $392,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in UBS. Forum Financial Management LP grew its holdings in shares of UBS Group by 20.8% during the 4th quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 68,105 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,065,000 after purchasing an additional 11,749 shares in the last quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC increased its holdings in UBS Group by 74.5% in the 4th quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 8,624 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $261,000 after buying an additional 3,683 shares during the period. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 2,016,056 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,647,000 after buying an additional 93,931 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new stake in shares of UBS Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $54,397,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in UBS Group by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 40,505 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,228,000 after acquiring an additional 2,685 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

UBS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America lowered UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. BNP Paribas raised shares of UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of UBS Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold”.

UBS Group Stock Performance

Shares of UBS Group stock opened at $27.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.99. UBS Group AG has a fifty-two week low of $25.75 and a fifty-two week high of $35.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $88.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.18 and a beta of 1.16.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.90 billion. UBS Group had a net margin of 6.93% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.09) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that UBS Group AG will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 16th were issued a $0.90 dividend. This is a positive change from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23. This represents a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.47%.

UBS Group Company Profile

UBS Group AG provides financial advice and solutions to private, institutional, and corporate clients worldwide. It operates through five divisions: Global Wealth Management, Personal & Corporate Banking, Asset Management, Investment Bank, and Non-core and Legacy. The company offers investment advice, estate and wealth planning, investing, corporate and banking, and investment management, as well as mortgage, securities-based, and structured lending solutions.