Brokerages Set The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) Price Target at C$74.75

The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$76.00.

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$73.00 to C$90.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target 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. CIBC lifted their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$82.00 to C$84.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays upgraded Bank of Nova Scotia from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Performance

Shares of TSE BNS opened at C$79.52 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$73.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$67.92. The stock has a market cap of C$98.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 earnings results on Tuesday, August 27th. The bank reported C$1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting 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 analyst estimates of C$8.50 billion. Analysts predict that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 yield of 5.33%. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.