UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on UBS. Morgan Stanley downgraded UBS Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com downgraded UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in UBS. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in UBS Group during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,198,000. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its position in UBS Group by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 13,123 shares of the bank’s stock worth $406,000 after acquiring an additional 3,400 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in UBS Group by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 94,164 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,911,000 after acquiring an additional 2,776 shares during the period. M&G PLC boosted its position in UBS Group by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 4,507,947 shares of the bank’s stock worth $138,593,000 after acquiring an additional 135,766 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in UBS Group by 81.4% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 111,500 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,446,000 after acquiring an additional 50,041 shares during the period.

UBS Group Price Performance

UBS stock opened at $34.15 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76. UBS Group has a 52-week low of $26.01 and a 52-week high of $35.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $33.45 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.01. The company has a market capitalization of $109.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46 and a beta of 1.15.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $10.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.09) earnings per share. UBS Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that UBS Group will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23. UBS Group’s payout ratio is currently 19.08%.

UBS Group Company 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.