Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L – Get Rating) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$112.50.

Several analysts recently commented on L shares. Desjardins raised their price objective on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$110.00 to C$116.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 5th. National Bankshares raised their price objective on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$120.00 to C$122.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 5th. CIBC raised their target price on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$116.00 to C$120.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 25th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$112.00 to C$116.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$120.00 to C$133.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 28th.

In other news, Director Richard Dufresne sold 5,000 shares of Loblaw Companies stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$112.55, for a total transaction of C$562,772.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,884 shares in the company, valued at C$662,270.09.

Shares of TSE L opened at C$111.33 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.77, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 142.06. Loblaw Companies has a 52 week low of C$74.70 and a 52 week high of C$119.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of C$114.32 and a 200 day moving average price of C$107.69. The stock has a market capitalization of C$37.07 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.99.

Loblaw Companies (TSE:L – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 4th. The company reported C$1.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$1.31 by C$0.05. The company had revenue of C$12.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$12.36 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Loblaw Companies will post 7.0374641 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.405 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 14th. This is an increase from Loblaw Companies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. This represents a $1.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.46%. Loblaw Companies’s payout ratio is 24.39%.

About Loblaw Companies (Get Rating)

Loblaw Companies Limited, a food and pharmacy company, engages in the grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services, and wireless mobile products and services businesses in Canada. It operates in two segments, Retail and Financial Services. The Retail segment operates corporate and franchise-owned retail food, and associate-owned drug stores.

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