The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$76.00.

BNS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cormark cut their target price on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from C$68.00 to C$65.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Barclays raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. National Bankshares upped their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$66.00 to C$78.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$65.00 to C$69.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from C$73.00 to C$90.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Performance

Bank of Nova Scotia stock opened at C$79.52 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$73.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$67.92. The stock has a market capitalization of C$98.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.97. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 52 week low of C$56.83 and a 52 week high of C$79.70.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of C$8.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of C$8.50 billion. Research analysts forecast that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $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 5.33%. Bank of Nova Scotia’s payout ratio is presently 74.26%.

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.