UBS quarterly profit drops to $1.35 billion, but the Swiss bank set ambitious new earnings targets

LONDON — UBS on Tuesday reported a fall in quarterly profit, but beat analyst expectations and set ambitious new profitability targets as part of a strategic update.

The Swiss bank posted net profit attributable to shareholders of $1.35 billion for the fourth quarter. This was down from $1.64 billion a year earlier, and also lower than the $2.28 billion reported the previous quarter.

Analysts had forecast UBS to post net income attributable to shareholders of $863 million, according to the consensus published by the bank.

The figures take the bank’s full-year profit to $7.46 billion, above a company-compiled consensus of $6.98 billion.

“Our clients continued to put their trust in us, as was evident from the ongoing momentum in flows and volume growth throughout the year. Together with favorable market conditions and investor sentiment, this led to growth across the firm,” the bank said in a statement accompanying its results.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated shortly.