Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, August 31, 2018

Article Excerpt

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA, $75.53, Toronto symbol BNS, will increase its quarterly dividend by 3.7%. Starting with the October 2018, investors will receive $0.85 a share instead of $0.82. The new annual rate of $3.40 yields a high 4.5%. The bank also reported better-than-expected earnings for its latest quarter. That’s largely due to its recent acquisitions of banking operations in Chile and Peru as well as its $950 million all-stock purchase of Montreal-based wealth management firm Jarislowsky Fraser. If you exclude costs related to those acquisitions, the bank’s overall earnings in its fiscal 2018 third quarter, ended July 31, 2018, rose 7.4%, to $2.19 billion from $2.04 billion a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose at a slower rate of 4.8%, to $1.76 from $1.68. That beat the consensus estimate of $1.75. In the quarter, earnings from Canadian banking operations (50% of the total) rose 8.7%, on higher interest rates and a drop in credit losses. The international business…