Topic: How To Invest

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $66.73 – Toronto symbol BNS

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $66.73 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $80.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%, www.scotiabank.com) is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with $837.2 billion of assets.

In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2015, Bank of Nova Scotia earned $1.74 billion, or $1.42 a share. That’s up 2.5% from $1.70 billion, or $1.39 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.7%, to $5.9 billion from $5.7 billion.

The bank set aside $448 million to cover potential bad loans in the latest quarter, up 19.5% from $375 million a year earlier. That’s mainly because it’s loaning more funds to consumers in Canada and Latin America.

Meantime, the bank has now completed its $280-million U.S. acquisition of 51% of the credit card operations of Cencosud S.A., Chile’s largest retailer. As a result, it’s now Chile’s third-largest credit card issuer.

Bank of Nova Scotia has also announced a new plan to buy back up to 24 million worth of its shares, or 2% of the total outstanding, before June 1, 2016.

The bank recently raised its quarterly dividend by 3.0%, to $0.68 a share from $0.66. The new annual rate of $2.72 yields 4.1%. The stock trades at 11.7 times this year’s forecast earnings of $5.70 a share.

Bank of Nova Scotia is a buy.

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