Barclays Upgrades Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) to “Hold”

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

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BNS. Bank of America upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from C$73.00 to C$90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. TD Securities increased their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$80.00 to C$82.00 in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. UBS Group upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Seven research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$75.82.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Performance

BNS stock opened at C$78.91 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$73.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$67.64. Bank of Nova Scotia has a fifty-two week low of C$56.83 and a fifty-two week high of C$79.16. The company has a market cap of C$97.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, 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 earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported C$1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of C$1.63. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 9.49% and a net margin of 25.38%. The company had revenue of C$8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of C$8.50 billion. Equities analysts predict that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $1.06 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.37%. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.