Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Buys 15,000 Shares of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. raised its stake in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 6,521.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 15,230 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,000 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of UBS Group in the 4th quarter valued at $5,594,066,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in UBS Group by 1.0% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in UBS Group by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 34,979,795 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,070,335,000 after buying an additional 5,555,624 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 0.6% in 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. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted 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 worth $502,398,000 after acquiring an additional 301,394 shares in the last quarter.

UBS Group Price Performance

UBS Group stock opened at $30.68 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76. The stock has a market cap of $98.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.18 and a beta of 1.15. UBS Group AG has a 12-month low of $26.01 and a 12-month high of $35.84.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last issued its earnings results 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). The business had revenue of $11.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.90 billion. UBS Group had a net margin of 6.93% and a return on equity of 5.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.09) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that UBS Group AG will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 dividend yield of 2.1%. UBS Group’s payout ratio is presently 14.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.