EQB (TSE:EQB) Upgraded to Moderate Buy at Desjardins

Desjardins upgraded shares of EQB (TSE:EQB) to a moderate buy rating in a report issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

EQB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Cormark lowered EQB from a “buy” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from C$131.00 to C$110.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on EQB from C$106.00 to C$119.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. TD Securities lowered EQB from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from C$126.00 to C$110.00 in a research note on Friday, December 6th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of EQB from C$113.00 to C$130.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a C$129.00 target price on shares of EQB and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EQB presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$118.30.

EQB Stock Performance

Shares of EQB opened at C$107.38 on Monday. EQB has a 1 year low of C$78.24 and a 1 year high of C$114.22. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$104.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$103.19. The company has a market capitalization of C$4.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.28, a PEG ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.59.

EQB Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.49 per share. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.83%. This is a boost from EQB’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. EQB’s payout ratio is 19.75%.

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.