Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) Rating Increased to Hold at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on BNS. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from C$80.00 to C$82.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. CIBC raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from C$71.00 to C$84.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$72.00 to C$84.00 in a research note on Monday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Nova Scotia presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$74.75.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

Shares of TSE:BNS opened at C$78.50 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$73.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$67.50. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 1 year low of C$56.83 and a 1 year high of C$79.16. The stock has a market capitalization of C$97.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.97.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported C$1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of C$1.63. The business had revenue of C$8.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$8.50 billion. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 9.49% and a net margin of 25.38%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were given a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.40%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.26%.

Bank of Nova Scotia Company Profile

The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets segments.