Updating our #1 pick for 2014

Article Excerpt

We made Bank of Nova Scotia our #1 safety-conscious buy in 2013 and again in 2014. The bank just reported strong quarterly results and raised its dividend. The shares are already up 18.4% this year, but we think they can still go higher. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $72.16 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $88.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 3.7%, www.scotiabank.com) is the third-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with $791.5 billion of assets. In the three months ended July 31, 2014, the bank earned $1.85 a share, up 36.0% from $1.36 a year earlier. The latest quarter included a one-time gain of $0.45 a share from the sale of most of the bank’s stake in mutual fund company CI Financial for $2.3 billion. Without one-time items, earnings per share rose 8.5%, to $1.40 from $1.29. Higher loan demand and deposits pushed up the Canadian banking division’s earnings by 2.7%. That includes ING Direct,…