Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L) Stock Has Average Target Price of C$73.00 According to Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts rate Loblaw a “Moderate Buy”: Of nine covering firms, six recommend buying, one strongly recommends buying, and two recommend holding. The average 12-month price target is C$73.
• Recent analyst targets range from C$67 to C$81, with several firms raising their targets and TD Securities upgrading the stock to “strong buy.”
• Loblaw declared a quarterly dividend of C$0.1552 per share, equivalent to C$0.62 annually and a 0.9% yield; insiders sold about 324,000 shares over the past 90 days.

Loblaw Companies Limited (TSE:L - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the nine research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is C$73.00.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on L shares. Scotia raised their price objective on shares of Loblaw Companies from C$64.00 to C$67.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. TD Securities upgraded Loblaw Companies to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. National Bank Financial upped their price target on Loblaw Companies from C$70.00 to C$72.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 21st. Desjardins raised their price objective on Loblaw Companies from C$70.00 to C$72.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce set a C$81.00 target price on Loblaw Companies and gave the stock an "outperformer" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 22nd.

Loblaw Companies Trading Up 0.8%

Loblaw Companies stock opened at C$69.93 on Friday. Loblaw Companies has a 52 week low of C$58.78 and a 52 week high of C$71.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 151.15, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of C$80.81 billion, a PE ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 3.23 and a beta of -0.02. The business's 50-day simple moving average is C$65.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$63.93.

Loblaw Companies Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, October 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, October 1st were given a $0.1552 dividend. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 15th. Loblaw Companies's dividend payout ratio is 24.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Loblaw Companies news, insider Per Bank sold 203,623 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$62.01, for a total value of C$12,626,662.23. Also, insider David Markwell sold 56,240 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$62.07, for a total transaction of C$3,490,816.80. Insiders sold 324,121 shares of company stock worth $20,118,530 in the last 90 days. 53.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Loblaw Companies

Loblaw is Canada's food and pharmacy leader, and the nation's largest retailer. Loblaw provides Canadians with grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services and wireless mobile products and services. With more than 2,800 corporate franchised and Associate-owned locations, Loblaw, its franchisees and Associate-owners employ more than 220,000 full- and part-time employees, making it one of Canada's largest private sector employers. Loblaw's purpose - Live Life Well® - puts first the needs and well-being of Canadians who make one billion transactions annually in the company's stores.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.