Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Has $1.07 Billion Stock Holdings in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its position in shares of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 18.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 34,979,795 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,555,624 shares during the period. UBS Group makes up 1.2% of Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $1,070,335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in UBS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of UBS Group in the fourth quarter worth $5,594,066,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in UBS Group by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 127,886,868 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,915,512,000 after buying an additional 1,296,428 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its position in UBS Group by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 57,349,524 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,771,713,000 after buying an additional 3,289,387 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in shares of UBS Group by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 16,751,961 shares of the bank’s stock worth $543,936,000 after buying an additional 95,712 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of UBS Group by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 16,445,068 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $502,398,000 after acquiring an additional 301,394 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. BNP Paribas raised UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of UBS Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold”.

UBS Group Stock Down 3.9 %

UBS opened at $31.92 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.21. UBS Group AG has a 1-year low of $26.01 and a 1-year high of $35.84. The stock has a market cap of $102.33 billion, a PE ratio of 21.00 and a beta of 1.15. 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 (NYSE:UBS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.08). The firm had revenue of $11.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.90 billion. UBS Group had a net margin of 6.93% and a return on equity of 5.93%. UBS Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.09) EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that UBS Group AG will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This is a boost from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a yield of 2.1%. UBS Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.47%.

UBS Group Profile

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.