EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$105.44.

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial dropped their price target on shares of EQB from C$93.00 to C$91.00 in a research note on Friday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of EQB from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$108.00 to C$130.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of EQB from C$96.00 to C$103.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price target on shares of EQB from C$107.00 to C$93.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Veritas upgraded shares of EQB to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st.

EQB Price Performance

Shares of TSE EQB opened at C$107.32 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of C$99.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$96.38. The company has a market capitalization of C$4.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 0.94. EQB has a 1 year low of C$83.93 and a 1 year high of C$111.45.

EQB (TSE:EQB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 3rd. The company reported C$6.56 EPS for the quarter. EQB had a return on equity of 8.52% and a net margin of 13.04%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that EQB will post 12.5988235 earnings per share for the current year.

EQB Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st were given a $0.57 dividend. This is a boost from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. EQB’s payout ratio is currently 31.28%.

About EQB

EQB Inc formerly Equitable Group Inc trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange TSX: EQB and EQB.PR.C and serves over 360000 Canadians through its wholly owned subsidiary Equitable Bank Canadas Challenger Bank. Equitable Bank has grown to become the countrys eighth largest independent Schedule I bank with a clear mandate to drive real change in Canadian banking to enrich peoples lives. At Equitable Bank we are as invested in our employees as we are in our business. Thats why we are consistently recognized as one of Canadas Top Employers a rating that comes from our 1300+ employees.