Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Itau Unibanco Put Options (NYSE:ITUB)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 3,570 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 138% compared to the average daily volume of 1,503 put options.

Insider Activity at Itau Unibanco

In other news, insider Vanzo Orestes sold 74,643 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.38, for a total transaction of $625,508.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 933,371 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,821,648.98. This represents a 7.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Itau Unibanco

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 111.9% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,293,618 shares of the bank’s stock worth $182,139,000 after purchasing an additional 11,771,394 shares during the period. Carmignac Gestion increased its stake in shares of Itau Unibanco by 41.6% in the second quarter. Carmignac Gestion now owns 12,219,314 shares of the bank’s stock worth $99,832,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589,092 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 32.4% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 6,579,735 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $55,088,000 after purchasing an additional 1,611,094 shares during the period. Amundi raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 32.1% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 5,286,501 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $43,191,000 after purchasing an additional 1,283,503 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Itau Unibanco by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,202,138 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $43,594,000 after purchasing an additional 58,133 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ITUB has been the subject of several recent research reports. HSBC lowered shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $9.10 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Itau Unibanco to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Itau Unibanco from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Itau Unibanco from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $10.50 price objective (up from $9.30) on shares of Itau Unibanco in a research report on Friday, October 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $9.87.

Itau Unibanco Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ITUB traded up $0.02 during trading on Monday, hitting $9.46. The company had a trading volume of 6,593,225 shares, compared to its average volume of 25,251,969. Itau Unibanco has a 12 month low of $6.80 and a 12 month high of $10.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.44, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $8.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.29.

Itau Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $9.27 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.29 billion. Itau Unibanco had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 21.40%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Itau Unibanco will post 0.88 earnings per share for the current year.

About Itau Unibanco

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA is a financial services company headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil, and one of the largest banking groups in Latin America. The company provides banking and financial products to individuals, small and midsize businesses, large corporations and institutional clients through digital channels and a network of branches and service locations.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgages, credit cards, insurance, investment products, asset management, foreign exchange and payment services.