Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at Cibc World Mkts

Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) (TSE:RY) was upgraded by analysts at Cibc World Mkts from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

RY has been the subject of several other reports. CIBC raised shares of Royal Bank of Canada from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on shares of Royal Bank of Canada from $195.00 to $193.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Royal Bank of Canada from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $156.50.

Royal Bank of Canada Stock Performance

Shares of Royal Bank of Canada stock opened at $111.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $156.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.82. Royal Bank of Canada has a one year low of $95.84 and a one year high of $128.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $116.60 and its 200-day moving average is $120.71.

Institutional Trading of Royal Bank of Canada

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RY. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Royal Bank of Canada in the 4th quarter valued at $2,425,519,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Royal Bank of Canada by 31.2% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,382,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,027,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,991,364 shares during the period. APG Asset Management N.V. raised its position in shares of Royal Bank of Canada by 1,600.9% in the fourth quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 1,427,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $166,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,343,174 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Royal Bank of Canada by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 59,183,549 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,136,056,000 after buying an additional 1,104,975 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Royal Bank of Canada by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 11,112,451 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,338,156,000 after buying an additional 921,276 shares during the period. 45.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Royal Bank of Canada

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.