Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, June 9, 2017

Article Excerpt

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $78.57, Toronto symbol BNS, is Canada’s third-largest bank, with assets of $919.6 billion. With the April 2017 payment, the bank raised its quarterly dividend by 2.7%, to $0.76 a share from $0.74. The new annual rate of $3.04 yields a high 3.9%. Bank of Nova Scotia has now agreed to sell its banking operations in Malaysia to Cathay Financial Holdings Co. for $255 million U.S. The sale is part of the bank’s plan to focus on its more-profitable operations in Asia. It expects to complete the sale by the end of 2017. Meantime, Bank of Nova Scotia’s earnings in the three months ended April 30, 2017, jumped 30.1%, to $2.1 billion from $1.6 billion a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 31.7%, to $1.62 from $1.53. If you exclude costs related to a restructuring plan in the year-earlier quarter, per-share earnings gained 10.1%, to $1.63 from $1.48. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.57 a share. That restructuring…