Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) Reaches New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

The Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$74.29 and last traded at C$73.64, with a volume of 696786 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$73.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BNS has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Cormark cut their target price on Bank of Nova Scotia from C$68.00 to C$65.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. CIBC upgraded shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a report on Friday, September 20th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from C$62.00 to C$65.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped 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 research report on Wednesday, August 28th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$68.25.

Bank of Nova Scotia Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a market cap of C$91.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of C$69.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$66.07.

Bank of Nova Scotia (TSE:BNS) (NYSE:BNS) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of C$8.50 billion. Bank of Nova Scotia had a net margin of 25.38% and a return on equity of 9.49%. On average, equities analysts forecast that The Bank of Nova Scotia will post 7.1286267 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of $1.06 per share. This represents a $4.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.