Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) Short Interest Up 18.0% in March

Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 6,183,278 shares, an increase of 18.0% from the February 26th total of 5,240,205 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,128,381 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of Nova Scotia

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 1,073.1% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 1,410,536 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $77,840,000 after acquiring an additional 1,290,300 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 315.0% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 2,873,828 shares of the bank’s stock worth $159,014,000 after acquiring an additional 2,181,312 shares during the last quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. increased its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 13.1% during the third quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 1,094,330 shares of the bank’s stock worth $70,748,000 after acquiring an additional 126,409 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in Bank of Nova Scotia by 11.7% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 4,728,837 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $285,228,000 after purchasing an additional 495,797 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 55.4% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,517,072 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $98,118,000 after purchasing an additional 540,526 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BNS. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered Bank of Nova Scotia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Bank of Nova Scotia from $97.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. TD Securities reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a research report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Bank of Nova Scotia from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of Nova Scotia currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

Shares of BNS traded up $1.89 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $69.28. 2,203,034 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,176,696. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $73.45 and a 200-day moving average of $70.17. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 52 week low of $44.09 and a 52 week high of $78.28. The stock has a market cap of $85.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.40, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

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

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.