Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) Declares $1.03 Quarterly Dividend

Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) (TSE:RY) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 28th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Thursday, April 24th will be paid a dividend of 1.0251 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $4.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 24th.

Royal Bank of Canada has increased its dividend by an average of 8.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 14 consecutive years. Royal Bank of Canada has a payout ratio of 41.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Royal Bank of Canada to earn $10.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $4.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.2%.

Royal Bank of Canada Price Performance

NYSE:RY traded up $2.96 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $118.17. The stock had a trading volume of 1,087,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,272,711. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $167.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. Royal Bank of Canada has a one year low of $95.84 and a one year high of $128.05.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Royal Bank of Canada from $195.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. TD Securities lowered Royal Bank of Canada from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Royal Bank of Canada from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 1st. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Royal Bank of Canada from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $156.50.

Royal Bank of Canada Company Profile

Royal Bank of Canada operates as a diversified financial service company worldwide. The company's Personal & Commercial Banking segment offers checking and savings accounts, home equity financing, personal lending, private banking, indirect lending, including auto financing, mutual funds and self-directed brokerage accounts, guaranteed investment certificates, credit cards, and payment products and solutions; and lending, leasing, deposit, investment, foreign exchange, cash management, auto dealer financing, trade products, and services to small and medium-sized commercial businesses.