New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC Decreases Holdings in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC decreased its holdings in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 18.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,114 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 2,653 shares during the period. New Vernon Capital Holdings II LLC’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $367,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of UBS Group in the fourth quarter worth about $5,594,066,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of UBS Group by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 127,886,868 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,915,512,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296,428 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of UBS Group by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 55,533,620 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,695,087,000 after purchasing an additional 12,609,616 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in UBS Group by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 34,979,795 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,070,335,000 after buying an additional 5,555,624 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 16,751,961 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $543,936,000 after acquiring an additional 95,712 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on UBS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Kepler Capital Markets raised UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America downgraded shares of UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. BNP Paribas raised shares of UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of UBS Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

UBS Group Stock Performance

Shares of UBS stock opened at $29.82 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $31.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.94. The stock has a market cap of $95.62 billion, a PE ratio of 19.62 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76. UBS Group AG has a 12 month low of $25.75 and a 12 month high of $35.84.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.08). UBS Group had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 6.93%. The business had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.90 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.09) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that UBS Group AG will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

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

About UBS Group

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.