Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) Upgraded to Buy at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. TD Securities raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Nova Scotia currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

NYSE:BNS opened at $56.12 on Tuesday. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 1-year low of $41.80 and a 1-year high of $56.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $49.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $69.84 billion, a PE ratio of 13.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.05.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.01. Bank of Nova Scotia had a net margin of 9.84% and a return on equity of 11.14%. The business had revenue of $8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.30 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 4.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.768 per share. This represents a $3.07 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of Nova Scotia’s payout ratio is 74.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Toronto Dominion Bank increased its stake in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 9.6% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 24,990,868 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,361,752,000 after buying an additional 2,195,604 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 10.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,640,471 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $310,817,000 after acquiring an additional 524,496 shares during the last quarter. Executive Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Bank of Nova Scotia in the third quarter valued at approximately $619,000. Abel Hall LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $218,000. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 27.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 214,957 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,712,000 after buying an additional 46,421 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.13% of the company’s stock.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

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.