Short Interest in National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) Drops By 42.8%

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,122,700 shares, a drop of 42.8% from the January 31st total of 8,953,400 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 167,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 30.6 days.

National Bank of Canada Trading Down 1.8 %

OTCMKTS:NTIOF traded down $1.46 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $81.71. 45,579 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 95,217. The company has a market capitalization of $31.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.41 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company’s 50 day moving average is $89.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $92.47. National Bank of Canada has a twelve month low of $76.77 and a twelve month high of $100.08.

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.05. National Bank of Canada had a net margin of 24.65% and a return on equity of 17.21%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that National Bank of Canada will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

National Bank of Canada Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Saturday, February 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a $0.8104 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 3.53%. This is an increase from National Bank of Canada’s previous dividend of $0.81. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. National Bank of Canada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.67%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on NTIOF shares. Cormark lowered National Bank of Canada from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st.

National Bank of Canada Company Profile

National Bank of Canada provides financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional clients, and governments in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit, investment solutions, international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services.