Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $117.00.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BNS shares. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from $98.00 to $117.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a report on Friday, May 22nd.

Institutional Trading of Bank of Nova Scotia

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BNS. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,368,456,000. FIL Ltd increased its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 49.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 16,489,540 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,216,157,000 after buying an additional 5,461,052 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia by 3,120.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,556,295 shares of the bank’s stock worth $262,284,000 after buying an additional 3,445,856 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new stake in Bank of Nova Scotia during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $138,394,000. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new position in Bank of Nova Scotia in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $121,032,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.13% of the company’s stock.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Up 2.2%

Bank of Nova Scotia stock opened at $87.90 on Friday. Bank of Nova Scotia has a fifty-two week low of $55.21 and a fifty-two week high of $90.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $84.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.95. The company has a market capitalization of $107.68 billion, a PE ratio of 16.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 1.11.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The bank reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.05. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 13.16% and a net margin of 13.38%.The company had revenue of $7.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 6.01 earnings per share for the current year.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia, commonly known as Scotiabank, is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company founded in 1832 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It is one of Canada’s largest banks and provides a broad range of financial services to retail, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. The bank combines a domestic Canadian franchise with an extensive international presence to serve customers across multiple markets.

Scotiabank’s core activities include personal and commercial banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking, capital markets, and global transaction banking.