EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five 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$122.50.

A number of analysts have commented on EQB shares. TD dropped their price target on shares of EQB from C$132.00 to C$123.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. National Bank Financial set a C$120.00 price objective on shares of EQB and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of EQB from C$138.00 to C$132.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Desjardins lifted their price objective on shares of EQB from C$130.00 to C$132.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of EQB from C$122.00 to C$125.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday.

EQB Trading Down 0.5%

EQB stock opened at C$115.33 on Wednesday. EQB has a 52 week low of C$83.93 and a 52 week high of C$126.51. The company has a market capitalization of C$4.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$116.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$108.51.

EQB (TSE:EQB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The company reported C$2.03 EPS for the quarter. EQB had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 6.16%. The company had revenue of C$302.36 million for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts predict that EQB will post 12.5988235 earnings per share for the current year.

EQB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. This is an increase from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. EQB’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.01%.

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.