UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) Increases Dividend to $0.90 Per Share

UBS Group AG (NYSE:UBS) announced an annual dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 16th will be given a dividend of 0.90 per share by the bank on Thursday, April 17th. This represents a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 16th. This is an increase from UBS Group’s previous annual dividend of $0.23.

UBS Group has increased its dividend by an average of 23.7% per year over the last three years. UBS Group has a dividend payout ratio of 11.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect UBS Group to earn $1.95 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.35 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.9%.

UBS Group Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE UBS traded up $0.23 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $32.64. The stock had a trading volume of 2,915,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,234,940. The company has a market capitalization of $104.64 billion, a PE ratio of 27.20 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $32.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.87, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. UBS Group has a 12 month low of $26.00 and a 12 month high of $35.84.

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The bank reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.08). The firm 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 5.13% and a return on equity of 4.69%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.09) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that UBS Group will post 1.39 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on UBS. StockNews.com lowered UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. BNP Paribas raised UBS Group from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Kepler Capital Markets raised UBS Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, UBS Group has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

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.