Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) Upgraded 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 note released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on BNS. TD Securities increased their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$80.00 to C$82.00 in a research note on Friday, November 15th. CIBC upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from C$65.00 to C$69.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from C$71.00 to C$84.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from C$73.00 to C$90.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of Nova Scotia presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$75.82.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

TSE:BNS opened at C$78.91 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of C$97.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is C$73.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$67.64. Bank of Nova Scotia has a one year low of C$56.83 and a one year high of C$79.16.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported C$1.63 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 25.38% and a return on equity of 9.49%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Announces Dividend

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