UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) Short Interest Up 38.6% in February

UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) saw a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,110,000 shares, a growth of 38.6% from the January 31st total of 5,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,000,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Berbice Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new position in UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in UBS Group during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on UBS. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Kepler Capital Markets raised UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. StockNews.com downgraded UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley downgraded UBS Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

UBS Group Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of UBS Group stock traded down $1.07 on Tuesday, reaching $33.32. 8,209,364 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,114,618. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.26 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.92 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.76. UBS Group has a fifty-two week low of $26.01 and a fifty-two week high of $35.84.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.08). The company had revenue of $11.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.90 billion. UBS Group had a return on equity of 5.93% and a net margin of 6.93%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.09) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that UBS Group will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

UBS Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a yield of 2.1%. This is a positive change from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 16th. UBS Group’s payout ratio is presently 19.08%.

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.