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UBS announced plans for a $3 billion buyback Wednesday and posted fourth-quarter profits that beat analysts’ forecasts.
The Swiss banking giant said it aims to buyback at least $3 billion of shares in 2026, adding that it aims to do more.
Net profit attributable to shareholders rose 56% year-on-year to $1.2 billion in the final three months of the year. That was higher than analysts’ estimates of $919 million.
Overall, its group revenues were $12.1 billion for the final quarter of the year, which was in line with the $12.1 billion forecast by analysts. It was also down from $12.8 billion in the previous quarter, and up from $11.6 billion for the same period a year ago.
UBS’ shares were last seen down 4.7% on Wednesday morning.
Johann Scholtz, senior equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” that the fourth-quarter earnings were another strong set of results for the bank, which was executing well on the Credit Suisse integration.
However, he cautioned that there remains “a bit of an overhang” on the bank’s share price from proposed capital requirement changes in Switzerland that would require it to hold an additional $26 billion in core capital. Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said last month that she opposed lawmakers’ compromise plan which would ease back on the strict measures.
UBS.
KBW analysts said that while the overall earnings were solid, net new assets — which came in at $8.5 billion, down from $37.5 billion the previous quarter — were a disappointment. Looking ahead, UBS expects a low single-digit decline quarter-on-quarter in the global wealth management business in the first quarter of 2026.
Meanwhile, UBS’ common equity tier (CET) 1 capital ratio — a gauge of a bank’s solvency — came in at 14.4% for the fourth quarter, compared to 14.8% in the previous quarter.
The bank said invested assets now exceed $7 trillion for the first time, and it is set to achieve its 2026 exit rate target, with an increased dividend coupled with share repurchases.
CEO Sergio Ermotti said the global wealth management and investment banking units each performed well, with the former seeing net new assets of $101 billion, while the bank’s Swiss business is “holding up strongly” despite the negative rates environment.
Acknowledging recent market volatility, during which precious metals experienced a sharp sell-off earlier this week, Ermotti said clients remain cautious, though there has not been any immediate major shift in asset allocation.
“They are looking for protection, they are shying away a little bit from the tech sector lately,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s Carolin Roth. “The volatility we see, and the rapid changes in the geopolitical landscape almost every day, is making is making clients really think about diversification more and more.”
He added that the strong inflows in Europe and Asia helped offset weakness in the Americas, where outflows reached $14 billion in the U.S.
Earlier, Ermotti — who returned to the helm of Switzerland’s largest lender in 2023 to oversee the government-led emergency takeover of stricken Swiss rival Credit Suisse — said the bank has made “great progress” on “one of the most complex integrations in banking history.”