Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY) Reaches New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?

Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY) (NYSE:RY)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as C$236.66 and last traded at C$235.94, with a volume of 329326 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$234.57.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. National Bankshares raised Royal Bank of Canada from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$203.00 to C$231.00 in a research note on Monday, November 17th. CIBC boosted their price objective on Royal Bank of Canada from C$220.00 to C$229.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Royal Bank of Canada from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price objective for the company from C$213.00 to C$215.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on Royal Bank of Canada from C$225.00 to C$238.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Royal Bank of Canada from C$229.00 to C$245.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$228.92.

Royal Bank of Canada Stock Up 1.4%

The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$218.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$201.11. The company has a market capitalization of C$333.00 billion, a PE ratio of 16.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 1.32.

Royal Bank of Canada (TSE:RY) (NYSE:RY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 3rd. The financial services provider reported C$3.85 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$17.21 billion for the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada had a return on equity of 13.27% and a net margin of 28.23%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Royal Bank of Canada will post 12.3454675 EPS for the current year.

Royal Bank of Canada Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 24th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a $1.54 dividend. This represents a $6.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 27th. Royal Bank of Canada’s payout ratio is 42.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Bank of Canada

In related news, Director David Ian Mckay sold 91,288 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$228.75, for a total transaction of C$20,882,130.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 5,873 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$1,343,448.75. This trade represents a 93.96% decrease in their position.

About Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada is one of the two largest banks in Canada. It is a diversified financial services company, offering personal and commercial banking, wealth-management services, insurance, corporate banking, and capital markets services. The bank is concentrated in Canada, with additional operations in the U.S. and other countries.