Scotiabank remains a Big Five buy

Article Excerpt

We’ve long said that the top five Canadian banks tend to leapfrog each other in investment desirability. That’s why we suggest that most Canadians own two or even three of them—including Bank of Nova Scotia. Its cheap price, prospects for growth and its high yield make it a buy. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $64.99, is a buy. The lender (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $79.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 6.5%; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s third-largest bank. Due to current economic uncertainty as a result of relatively high interest rates and inflation, Bank of Nova Scotia set aside $1.01 billion to cover future loan losses in its fiscal 2024 second quarter, ended April 30, 2024. That’s up 42.0% from $709 million a year earlier. As a result, the bank’s earnings before one-time items in the quarter fell 3.8%, to $1.96 billion from $2.03 billion. Due to more shares outstanding, per-share earnings declined at a faster rate of 6.5%, to $1.58…