Short Interest in National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) Drops By 42.8%

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,122,700 shares, a drop of 42.8% from the January 31st total of 8,953,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 167,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 30.6 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTIOF has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays lowered National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Cibc World Mkts cut shares of National Bank of Canada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cormark cut shares of National Bank of Canada from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st.

National Bank of Canada Price Performance

National Bank of Canada stock traded up $0.26 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $83.17. 162,755 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 96,491. National Bank of Canada has a 1-year low of $76.77 and a 1-year high of $100.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.43. The firm has a market cap of $32.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 1.07.

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.84 by $0.05. National Bank of Canada had a net margin of 24.65% and a return on equity of 17.21%. As a group, analysts forecast that National Bank of Canada will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

National Bank of Canada Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Saturday, February 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.8104 per share. This is a positive change from National Bank of Canada’s previous dividend of $0.81. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.53%. National Bank of Canada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.67%.

About National Bank of Canada

National Bank of Canada provides financial services to individuals, businesses, institutional clients, and governments in Canada and internationally. It operates through four segments: Personal and Commercial, Wealth Management, Financial Markets, and U.S. Specialty Finance and International. The Personal and Commercial segment offers personal banking services, including transaction solutions, mortgage loans and home equity lines of credit, consumer loans, payment solutions, and savings and investment solutions; various insurance products; and commercial banking services, such as credit, and deposit, investment solutions, international trade, foreign exchange transactions, payroll, cash management, insurance, electronic transactions, and complimentary services.