Definity Financial (TSE:DFY) Downgraded by Scotiabank to “Hold”

Scotiabank downgraded shares of Definity Financial (TSE:DFY) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Desjardins increased their price objective on Definity Financial from C$47.00 to C$52.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Definity Financial from C$53.00 to C$57.00 in a report on Monday. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Definity Financial from C$58.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. National Bankshares lifted their target price on shares of Definity Financial from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Raymond James lowered Definity Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from C$53.00 to C$55.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Definity Financial has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$54.70.

Definity Financial Price Performance

TSE:DFY traded down C$0.28 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting C$56.00. 23,424 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 106,161. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.38, a quick ratio of 0.31 and a current ratio of 7.68. The company has a market cap of C$6.43 billion, a PE ratio of 17.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$53.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$48.65. Definity Financial has a 1 year low of C$35.48 and a 1 year high of C$58.73.

Definity Financial (TSE:DFY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of C($0.04) by C$0.17. The business had revenue of C$1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$1.10 billion. Definity Financial had a net margin of 9.60% and a return on equity of 13.00%. Sell-side analysts expect that Definity Financial will post 3.1263962 EPS for the current year.

Definity Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.14%. Definity Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.34%.

About Definity Financial

Definity Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, offers property and casualty insurance products in Canada. It provides personal insurance products, including auto, property, general and umbrella liability, and pet insurance products to individuals under the Economical, Sonnet, Family, Petsecure, and Peppermint brands; and commercial insurance products, which include fleet, commercial auto, property, liability, and specialty insurance products to businesses under the Definity Insurance and Economical brand name.