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, which Bank of Nova Scotia bought for $3.1 billion in late 2012.
The international banking division’s earnings rose 2.5% on improved profits in Latin America and Asia. The wealth management business’s earnings gained 6.0%, as rising stock prices increased the value of the assets it manages.
The bank continues to see rising loan demand in Canada, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. That should keep boosting its earnings and letting it raise its dividend; the bank just increased its quarterly payout by 3.1%, and the stock now yields 3.7%. It trades at 13.0 times this year’s forecast earnings of $5.55 a share.
Bank of Nova Scotia is our #1 safety-conscious buy for 2014.
