Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Boosts Stake in Macro Bank Inc. $BMA

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of Macro Bank Inc. (NYSE:BMA) by 57.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 25,310 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 9,260 shares during the quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings in Macro Bank were worth $1,777,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Macro Bank by 19.0% in the first quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 775 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. Deuterium Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Macro Bank in the 1st quarter worth $218,000. Militia Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Macro Bank by 70.4% in the 1st quarter. Militia Capital Partners LP now owns 3,460 shares of the bank’s stock worth $261,000 after buying an additional 1,430 shares during the last quarter. Monaco Asset Management SAM bought a new position in shares of Macro Bank in the 1st quarter valued at about $302,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE purchased a new position in Macro Bank in the first quarter worth about $328,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BMA has been the subject of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res raised Macro Bank to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Zacks Research downgraded Macro Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Macro Bank from $79.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. Itau BBA Securities raised shares of Macro Bank from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Macro Bank from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $74.38.

Macro Bank Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of BMA opened at $82.96 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.13. Macro Bank Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.30 and a 1-year high of $118.42. The company has a 50-day moving average of $58.89 and a 200 day moving average of $68.92.

Macro Bank (NYSE:BMA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The bank reported $1.95 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $834.78 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $752.51 million. Macro Bank had a return on equity of 10.99% and a net margin of 8.32%. On average, research analysts expect that Macro Bank Inc. will post 7.84 EPS for the current year.

Macro Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 17th will be issued a $0.3486 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 17th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. This is a positive change from Macro Bank’s previous monthly dividend of $0.31. Macro Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 101.70%.

About Macro Bank

Banco Macro SA provides various banking products and services to retail and corporate customers in Argentina. It offers various retail banking products and services, such as savings and checking accounts, time deposits, credit and debit cards, consumer finance loans, mortgage loans, automobile loans, overdrafts, credit-related services, home and car insurance coverage, tax collection, utility payments, automated teller machines, and money transfers.