04:10 PM EDT, 05/27/2025 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

We lower our 12-month target price by CAD3 to CAD54, 7.2x our FY 26 (Oct.) EPS view of CAD7.55, a discount to the peer average of 11.4x given weaker growth prospects and inferior credit quality. We cut our FY 25 EPS view to CAD6.71 from CAD7.10 and FY 26's to CAD7.55 from CAD7.82. We remain cautious on shares of BNS as the banks' outsized exposure to developing markets remains a credit concern in our view. Still, we applaud management's efforts to improve efficiency and focus on client primacy. We can see progress in International Banking with an improving ROE of 15.5% in Q2 vs 13.7% a year ago and 12.4% two years ago. However, this has come at the cost of growth as loan balances are down 5% over the past two years. Separately, BNS announced it would increase its quarterly dividend by CAD0.04 to CAD1.10. Although a 6.0% dividend yield may appear enticing on the surface, we caution investors, as BNS has struggled with capital appreciation, with shares trading relatively flat over the past 11 years.