Royal Bank Of Canada Boosts Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) Price Target to $106.00

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) had its price target lifted by equities researchers at Royal Bank Of Canada from $97.00 to $106.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “sector perform” rating on the bank’s stock. Royal Bank Of Canada’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 38.09% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on BNS. Raymond James Financial assumed coverage on Bank of Nova Scotia in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. They issued an “outperform” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $106.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Up 1.1%

BNS stock opened at $76.76 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $94.63 billion, a PE ratio of 15.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $74.69 and its 200 day moving average is $68.36. Bank of Nova Scotia has a one year low of $44.09 and a one year high of $78.28.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The bank reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.06. Bank of Nova Scotia had a net margin of 12.40% and a return on equity of 12.49%. The business had revenue of $7.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 4.91 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Bank of Nova Scotia

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 57,237,537 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,221,440,000 after purchasing an additional 1,169,073 shares during the last quarter. Canerector Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 8,899.0% during the third quarter. Canerector Inc. now owns 26,997,000 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,745,356,000 after buying an additional 26,697,000 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 18,674,585 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,379,120,000 after buying an additional 310,564 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in the fourth quarter worth about $1,368,456,000. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its position in Bank of Nova Scotia by 49.5% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 16,489,540 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,216,157,000 after acquiring an additional 5,461,052 shares during the last quarter. 49.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.