BMO Capital Markets Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for iA Financial (TSE:IAG) Stock

iA Financial (TSE:IAG) had its price target lifted by BMO Capital Markets from C$126.00 to C$140.00 in a research report released on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on IAG. Scotiabank increased their price target on iA Financial from C$126.00 to C$143.00 in a research note on Thursday. TD Securities boosted their target price on iA Financial from C$132.00 to C$135.00 in a research report on Wednesday. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of iA Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of iA Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from C$105.00 to C$137.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded iA Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, iA Financial presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$128.50.

iA Financial Stock Performance

TSE:IAG traded down C$2.19 on Thursday, hitting C$128.20. The stock had a trading volume of 117,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 283,610. The company has a quick ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 46.39. The stock has a market cap of C$12.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.13. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is C$111.83 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$97.04. iA Financial has a 52-week low of C$80.95 and a 52-week high of C$134.29.

iA Financial (TSE:IAG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 6th. The company reported C$2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$2.58 by C$0.17. iA Financial had a return on equity of 10.51% and a net margin of 9.02%. The firm had revenue of C$1.64 billion during the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that iA Financial will post 11.6187564 earnings per share for the current year.

iA Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This is a boost from iA Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.82. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.81%. iA Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 43.91%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Senior Officer Michael Lee Stickney sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$130.60, for a total value of C$130,600.00. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

About iA Financial

iA Financial Corporation Inc, provides insurance and wealth management services in Canada and the United States. The company operates through Insurance, Canada; Wealth Management; Investment; and US Operations segments. The company provides health, auto, home, and creditor insurance products; replacement insurance products and warranties; extended warranties and other ancillary products for dealer services; specialized products for special markets; and life insurance products and extended warranties relating to dealer services.