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

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$102.56.

EQB has been the topic of several research analyst reports. National Bank Financial lowered shares of EQB from an “outperform market weight” rating to a “sector perform market weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of EQB from C$101.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. CIBC set a C$100.00 target price on shares of EQB and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 1st. TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of EQB from C$94.00 to C$105.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Finally, National Bankshares lowered shares of EQB from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from C$98.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 29th.

EQB Stock Performance

EQB opened at C$84.73 on Friday. EQB has a fifty-two week low of C$57.92 and a fifty-two week high of C$97.64. The company has a fifty day moving average of C$86.68 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$82.70. The stock has a market capitalization of C$3.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.10, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.67.

EQB (TSE:EQB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 27th. The company reported C$2.70 earnings per share for the quarter. EQB had a net margin of 39.67% and a return on equity of 14.70%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that EQB will post 11.4900925 earnings per share for the current year.

EQB Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.42 dividend. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.98%. This is a positive change from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. EQB’s payout ratio is presently 18.05%.

About EQB

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.