Ruggaard & Associates LLC Takes Position in Bank of Nova Scotia (The) $BNS

Ruggaard & Associates LLC bought a new stake in Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 8,530 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $741,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BNS. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Bank of Nova Scotia by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 18,674,585 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,379,120,000 after buying an additional 310,564 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,368,456,000. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of 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. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Bank of Nova Scotia by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 12,259,989 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $923,232,000 after purchasing an additional 799,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in Bank of Nova Scotia during the 2nd quarter worth $1,016,738,000. 49.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of Nova Scotia Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BNS opened at $92.97 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a market cap of $113.32 billion, a PE ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.11. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 12 month low of $61.69 and a 12 month high of $94.96.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The bank reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.05. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 16.12% and a net margin of 13.91%.The company had revenue of $7.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 6.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, October 6th will be given a $1.14 dividend. This represents a $4.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, October 6th. Bank of Nova Scotia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.05%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BNS has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Securities raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. National Bank Financial raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from $98.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods began coverage on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a report on Friday, August 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Nova Scotia has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $117.00.

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.