Legal & General Group Plc Increases Position in Royal Bank Of Canada $RY

Key Points

• Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in Royal Bank of Canada by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, adding 498,511 shares and bringing its total holdings to 8.77 million shares worth about $1.50 billion.
• Analyst sentiment is still broadly positive, with 10 Buy ratings and 4 Hold ratings and an average target price of $162.00, though a few firms recently downgraded the stock.
• Royal Bank of Canada reported solid quarterly results, with EPS of $2.94 beating estimates and revenue of $13.18 billion topping forecasts; it also paid a quarterly dividend of $1.64, equal to a 3.5% yield.

Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY - Free Report) TSE: RY by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,773,645 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 498,511 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.63% of Royal Bank Of Canada worth $1,497,675,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of RY. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 33.1% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 2,313 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 575 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 60.9% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 11,779 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,321,000 after buying an additional 4,460 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 57.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 5,284 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $695,000 after buying an additional 1,934 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 39.1% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 13,555 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,783,000 after buying an additional 3,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 9.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 47,721 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,279,000 after purchasing an additional 3,928 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on RY shares. Zacks Research cut shares of Royal Bank Of Canada from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a report on Monday, May 4th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Raymond James Financial cut shares of Royal Bank Of Canada from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Royal Bank Of Canada from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $162.00.

Royal Bank Of Canada Stock Performance

NYSE RY opened at $189.67 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $167.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Royal Bank Of Canada has a 12-month low of $124.19 and a 12-month high of $190.36. The firm has a market cap of $265.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.15, a PEG ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.80.

Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY - Get Free Report) TSE: RY last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $2.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $13.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.60 billion. Royal Bank Of Canada had a net margin of 15.28% and a return on equity of 17.12%. The company's revenue was up 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.62 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Royal Bank Of Canada will post 11.53 EPS for the current year.

Royal Bank Of Canada Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Thursday, April 23rd were issued a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 23rd. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Royal Bank Of Canada's payout ratio is 45.17%.

About Royal Bank Of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada NYSE: RY is a diversified financial services company and one of Canada's largest banks. Founded in 1864 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the firm is now headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It provides a broad range of banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, and institutional clients through a network of branches, digital platforms and international offices.

RBC operates across several principal business segments including personal and commercial banking, wealth management, insurance, investor and treasury services, capital markets, and global asset management.

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