Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Reduces Holdings in UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its position in shares of UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 308,601 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 7,711 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in UBS Group were worth $9,432,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR purchased a new stake in shares of UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,026,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 16,302 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $531,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the period. PDS Planning Inc raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 17,556 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $532,000 after purchasing an additional 1,101 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of UBS Group by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 78,725 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,387,000 after purchasing an additional 4,178 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of UBS Group by 13.7% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 19,129 shares of the bank’s stock worth $580,000 after buying an additional 2,305 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on UBS shares. Kepler Capital Markets upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. 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. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, UBS Group has an average rating of “Hold”.

UBS Group Stock Up 1.3 %

UBS stock opened at $33.85 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.05. UBS Group AG has a 1-year low of $26.01 and a 1-year high of $35.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $33.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.08. The firm has a market cap of $108.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.27 and a beta of 1.15.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $11.06 billion for 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%. The business’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. Research analysts predict that UBS Group AG will post 1.9 EPS for the current 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 issued a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 16th. This represents a yield of 2.1%. This is an increase from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23. UBS Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.08%.

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.