Scotiabank Q3 EPS Matches View; Ups Dividend

(RTTNews) - Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS, BNS.TO), or otherwise known as Scotiabank, Friday reported lower net profit for the third quarter, in the absence of a year-ago gain. Earnings per share, however, came in line with the Street view. Further, the company said it raised its quarterly dividend by 2 cents.

For the quarter, the third largest bank in Canada reported net income of C$1.847 billion or C$1.45 per share, compared to C$2.351 billion or C$1.85 per share in the previous year. The prior year included a gain on sale of C$555 million or C$0.45 per share.

On average, 4 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn C$1.45 per share. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items.

Return on equity was 14.7 percent, while in the previous year it was 15.7 percent.

Total revenue for the quarter was C$6.124 billion, down from C$6.487 billion a year ago. Wall Street was looking for C$6.16 billion in revenue.

Canadian Banking revenue declined to C$2.859 billion from C$3.290 billion, while International Banking revenue increased to C$2.280 billion from C$2.028 billion last year. Revenue from Global Banking and Markets totaled C$965 million for the recent third quarter, down from C$1.122 billion in the comparable quarter a year ago.

Provision for credit losses was C$480 million, up C$82 million from the previous year's provision of C$398 million.

Halifax, Canada-based Scotiabank's Common Equity Tier 1 ratio was down around 20 basis points to 10.4 percent. The company attributed the reduction to the impact of the acquisitions of Cencosud's financial services business in Chile and the operations of Citibank Peru.

The bank declared a quarterly dividend of 70 Canadian cents, higher than last year's by 2 Canadian cents, to shareholders of record on October 6, payable on October 28.

On Thursday, the shares closed at regular trading at C$45.34, on a volume of 1.640 million shares.