UBS posted a net profit attributable to shareholders of $1.35 billion, lower than $1.64 billion reported during the same quarter a year earlier. However, the net profit came higher than the $863 million forecasted by analysts.
The quarterly figures pushed UBS’ full-year profit to $7.46 billion, above $6.98 billion consensus, and 14% higher than the company reported in 2020.
According to UBS CEO Ralph Hamers, the fourth quarter was a very good ending to a record year, the best year in 15 years, both from a pre-tax and a post-tax perspective.
For the future, UBS wants to impose a dividend to shareholders of 50 cents/share for 2021, up from 37 cents in 2020, and it plans to buy back $5 billion worth of shares in 2022. In its first major strategic update since Hamers took over in November 2020, UBS will aim for $6 trillion in invested assets across its global wealth management, asset management, and personal and corporate banking divisions.
At the moment of writing, UBS’s stock price was trading 5.89% higher.
Sources: cnbc.com, finance.yahoo.com
