EQB (TSE:EQB) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

EQB Inc. (TSE:EQB) reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The company traded as high as C$127.31 and last traded at C$127.09, with a volume of 3040 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$126.30.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on EQB. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on EQB from C$110.00 to C$112.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on EQB from C$122.00 to C$125.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Raymond James Financial cut their target price on shares of EQB from C$127.00 to C$123.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 29th. National Bank Financial set a C$120.00 target price on shares of EQB and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, TD dropped their price target on shares of EQB from C$132.00 to C$123.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, EQB presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$122.50.

EQB Stock Up 1.9%

The firm has a market cap of C$4.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$119.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$112.38.

EQB (TSE:EQB) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The company reported C$2.03 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$302.36 million for the quarter. EQB had a net margin of 6.61% and a return on equity of 6.16%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that EQB Inc. will post 12.5988235 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is an increase from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. EQB’s dividend payout ratio is 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.