Sapient Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 9,601 UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 9,601 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $297,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of UBS Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,182,724,000. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in UBS Group by 37.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 51,432,723 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,271,454,000 after acquiring an additional 14,104,407 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in UBS Group in the first quarter valued at $81,603,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of UBS Group by 543.6% during the 3rd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 4,484,300 shares of the bank’s stock worth $111,197,000 after purchasing an additional 3,787,579 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of UBS Group during the 1st quarter worth $27,724,000.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on UBS shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of UBS Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 8th. Societe Generale upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded UBS Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

UBS Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE UBS opened at $28.42 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.23, a current ratio of 1.10 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $29.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $28.11. UBS Group AG has a 52 week low of $18.71 and a 52 week high of $32.13.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The bank reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.18). UBS Group had a net margin of 43.70% and a return on equity of 7.56%. The business had revenue of $10.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that UBS Group AG will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 2nd will be issued a $0.228 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 0.82%. This is a boost from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 1st. UBS Group’s payout ratio is 2.00%.

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.