Madison Investment Advisors LLC Purchases New Shares in Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 373,870 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $1,854,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC bought a new stake in Itaú Unibanco in the third quarter valued at $1,215,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,522,486 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $83,899,000 after buying an additional 861,500 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 50,829,515 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $338,016,000 after buying an additional 2,604,304 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 25,586 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 4,823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 27,899,587 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $174,930,000 after buying an additional 346,390 shares in the last quarter.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ITUB has been the topic of a number of research reports. HSBC upgraded shares of Itaú Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $6.18 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Itaú Unibanco from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Itaú Unibanco to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $6.27.

Itaú Unibanco Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:ITUB opened at $5.66 on Friday. Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $4.42 and a fifty-two week high of $6.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $5.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $5.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $60.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.97.

Itaú Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.01). Itaú Unibanco had a return on equity of 19.46% and a net margin of 12.25%. On average, analysts expect that Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Itaú Unibanco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were given a $0.0527 dividend. This is a positive change from Itaú Unibanco’s previous dividend of $0.00. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. Itaú Unibanco’s payout ratio is 2.82%.

Itaú Unibanco Company Profile

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.