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

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$115.22.

EQB has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank increased their price objective on EQB from C$102.00 to C$105.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded EQB from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$108.00 to C$130.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Raymond James Financial dropped their target price on EQB from C$93.00 to C$91.00 in a research report on Friday, December 5th. Veritas raised EQB to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Finally, TD Securities upgraded EQB from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from C$103.00 to C$138.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 18th.

EQB Stock Up 1.0%

TSE:EQB opened at C$118.80 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is C$107.53 and its 200 day moving average price is C$97.71. EQB has a 52-week low of C$83.93 and a 52-week high of C$126.51. The firm has a market cap of C$4.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.86, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 0.74.

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

EQB Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. 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 1.9%. This is a positive change from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.55. 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.