Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Buys New Position in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. $ITUB

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans bought a new stake in Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 816,427 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $5,993,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Itau Unibanco by 11.7% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 445,578 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,450,000 after purchasing an additional 46,608 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Itau Unibanco by 28.5% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,996,699 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,482,000 after buying an additional 1,107,607 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Itau Unibanco in the second quarter worth $332,000. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 16.5% during the second quarter. Ramirez Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,162,787 shares of the bank’s stock worth $14,685,000 after acquiring an additional 306,070 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 41.0% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 49,848 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $338,000 after acquiring an additional 14,501 shares in the last quarter.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on ITUB shares. Zacks Research upgraded Itau Unibanco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Itau Unibanco from $6.80 to $7.77 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research note on Monday, December 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $7.77.

Itau Unibanco Trading Up 3.8%

NYSE:ITUB opened at $9.01 on Friday. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. has a 1 year low of $4.73 and a 1 year high of $9.10. The stock has a market cap of $99.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.58. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $7.12.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $8.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.98 billion. Itau Unibanco had a return on equity of 20.82% and a net margin of 20.64%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Itau Unibanco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 11th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 2nd will be issued a $0.0032 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 2nd. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Itau Unibanco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.29%.

About Itau Unibanco

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.