Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Position in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lessened its stake in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 14.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 291,018 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 47,476 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $9,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of UBS. Syntal Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in UBS Group in the third quarter worth $515,000. NatWest Group plc increased its position in UBS Group by 43.1% in the fourth quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 74,947 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,316,000 after purchasing an additional 22,562 shares during the last quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. increased its position in UBS Group by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P. now owns 1,155,312 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $35,699,000 after acquiring an additional 78,067 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC increased its position in UBS Group by 13.9% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 64,633 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,593,000 after acquiring an additional 7,903 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in UBS Group by 6,797.0% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 4,635,670 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $143,567,000 after acquiring an additional 4,568,457 shares during the last quarter.

UBS Group Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NYSE UBS traded up $0.42 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $27.59. The company had a trading volume of 2,685,509 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,880,223. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.53 and its 200-day moving average is $28.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.23. The stock has a market cap of $96.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 1.16. UBS Group AG has a 52 week low of $18.76 and a 52 week high of $32.13.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The bank reported ($0.09) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by ($0.18). The company had revenue of $10.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.06 billion. UBS Group had a return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 43.70%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.50 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that UBS Group AG will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared an annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 2nd were issued a $0.228 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 1st. This is a boost from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.18. This represents a dividend yield of 0.82%. UBS Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 2.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on UBS shares. Societe Generale upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Citigroup cut shares of UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 23rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of UBS Group from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of UBS Group from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold”.

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.