Investors Purchase Large Volume of Itaú Unibanco Call Options (NYSE:ITUB)

Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) saw some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 13,135 call options on the company. This is an increase of 706% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,629 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Itaú Unibanco by 117.4% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 51,044,340 shares of the bank’s stock worth $253,180,000 after buying an additional 27,559,997 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Itaú Unibanco by 311.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 25,584,177 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $126,898,000 after acquiring an additional 19,365,644 shares during the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. bought a new stake in Itaú Unibanco during the fourth quarter worth about $71,054,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Itaú Unibanco during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,685,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Itaú Unibanco by 75.0% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,955,677 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $54,340,000 after purchasing an additional 4,694,303 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Itaú Unibanco Trading Up 4.6 %

NYSE:ITUB opened at $6.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $61.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.03, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.97. Itaú Unibanco has a 1-year low of $4.86 and a 1-year high of $7.03. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $5.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $5.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.32.

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

Itaú Unibanco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 19th were issued a dividend of $0.058 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. This is a boost from Itaú Unibanco’s previous dividend of $0.00. Itaú Unibanco’s dividend 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.