Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY) Sees Strong Trading Volume - What's Next?

Key Points

• Shares experienced an unusually strong trading day with roughly 5.13 million shares traded — a 252% increase from the prior session — while the stock last traded around $177.13 (down about 0.6%).
• Analysts are mixed but generally positive: there are 11 Buy and 3 Hold ratings for a consensus of "Moderate Buy" with a consensus price target of $162, and some recent notes include a Zacks downgrade to Hold amid other reafirmations.
• RBC beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $2.94 (vs. $2.81 est.) and revenue of $13.18B, and it declared a quarterly dividend of $1.64 (annualized $6.56, ~3.7% yield).

Royal Bank Of Canada (NYSE:RY - Get Free Report) TSE: RY shares saw unusually-strong trading volume on Wednesday . Approximately 5,131,974 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 252% from the previous session's volume of 1,457,352 shares.The stock last traded at $177.1260 and had previously closed at $177.45.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on RY shares. Zacks Research lowered Royal Bank Of Canada from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $162.00.

Royal Bank Of Canada Stock Down 0.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $246.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $167.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $161.93.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $2.81 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $13.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.60 billion. Royal Bank Of Canada had a return on equity of 17.12% and a net margin of 15.28%.Royal Bank Of Canada's revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.62 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Royal Bank Of Canada will post 11.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Bank Of Canada Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 23rd will be given a $1.64 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 23rd. This represents a $6.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.7%. Royal Bank Of Canada's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.74%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,628,463 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $11,529,165,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,142 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 23,258,871 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,965,133,000 after acquiring an additional 255,465 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,472,382,000. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 15,233,532 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,596,904,000 after acquiring an additional 238,589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Royal Bank Of Canada by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,741,480 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,389,773,000 after acquiring an additional 882,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 45.31% of the company's stock.

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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