Barclays Downgrades National Bank of Canada (TSE:NA) to Hold

Barclays downgraded shares of National Bank of Canada (TSE:NA) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

NA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on National Bank of Canada from C$123.00 to C$135.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on National Bank of Canada from C$113.00 to C$116.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. CIBC lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of National Bank of Canada from C$119.00 to C$126.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Desjardins lifted their target price on shares of National Bank of Canada from C$116.00 to C$118.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$129.30.

National Bank of Canada Price Performance

NA stock opened at C$137.81 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of C$46.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.14 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$130.71 and a 200 day moving average price of C$120.21. National Bank of Canada has a 12 month low of C$87.92 and a 12 month high of C$138.10.

National Bank of Canada (TSE:NA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The financial services provider reported C$2.68 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$2.50 by C$0.18. National Bank of Canada had a net margin of 34.50% and a return on equity of 15.18%. The business had revenue of C$2.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$2.95 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that National Bank of Canada will post 10.8360791 earnings per share for the current year.

National Bank of Canada Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $1.10 dividend. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 27th. National Bank of Canada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yvon Charest bought 285 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 19th. The shares were bought at an average price of C$133.71 per share, with a total value of C$38,107.35. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About National Bank of Canada

National Bank of Canada provides financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional clients, and governments in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit, investment solutions, international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services.