Scotiabank’s Ready to Move Forward

Article Excerpt

Bank of Nova Scotia is down since November, along with most financial services stocks, mainly because of concerns over a general lack of liquidity for asset-based securities. The rising Canadian dollar has also hurt the performance of the bank’s international operations, which supply about a third of its earnings. Still, the long-term profit and dividend outlook for Bank of Nova Scotia remains strong. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $47.82 (Toronto symbol BNS: SI Rating: Above average) is the second-largest of Canada’s five big banks, with assets of $449.4 billion. It has 1,000 branches in Canada. In the three months ended January 31, 2008, Bank of Nova Scotia earned $835 million or $0.82 a share, down 18.1% from $1.02 billion or $1.01 a share a year earlier. The latest earnings included $238 million in pre-tax writedowns and other charges. Without those charges, the bank would have earned about $1.00 a share. Revenue fell 9.7%, to $2.8 billion from $3.1 billion. The bank’s shares currently…