National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 6,478,600 shares, an increase of 26.5% from the February 13th total of 5,122,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 87,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 74.1 days. Approximately 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Cormark lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. CIBC reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of National Bank of Canada in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th.

National Bank of Canada Stock Down 0.7 %

OTCMKTS NTIOF opened at $82.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $87.17 and a 200-day moving average of $91.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.45 and a beta of 1.09. National Bank of Canada has a 52 week low of $76.77 and a 52 week high of $100.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76.

National Bank of Canada Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Saturday, February 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.8104 dividend. This is a boost from National Bank of Canada’s previous dividend of $0.81. This represents a dividend yield of 3.53%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. National Bank of Canada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.92%.

About National Bank of Canada

National Bank of Canada provides financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional clients, and governments in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit, investment solutions, international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services.