EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$106.56.

A number of research firms recently commented on EQB. Cormark dropped their price target on shares of EQB from C$121.00 to C$111.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of EQB from C$107.00 to C$109.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. TD Securities dropped their price objective on EQB from C$112.00 to C$109.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 30th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of EQB from C$113.00 to C$109.00 in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Raymond James reduced their price target on shares of EQB from C$110.00 to C$106.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st.

EQB Stock Performance

EQB opened at C$103.00 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.06, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a fifty day moving average of C$96.63 and a 200 day moving average of C$90.25. EQB has a fifty-two week low of C$66.41 and a fifty-two week high of C$103.24.

EQB (TSE:EQB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported C$2.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$2.93 by C$0.03. EQB had a return on equity of 14.70% and a net margin of 39.67%. The firm had revenue of C$327.24 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$325.00 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that EQB will post 12.6726343 earnings per share for the current year.

EQB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.47 per share. This is a positive change from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.83%. EQB’s payout ratio is presently 20.19%.

EQB Company Profile

EQB Inc, through its subsidiary, Equitable Bank, provides personal and commercial banking services to retail and commercial customers in Canada. The company accepts term deposits and guaranteed investment certificates, high interest savings accounts, institutional deposit notes and covered bonds, as well as specialized financing solutions.