Short Interest in National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) Rises By 31.0%

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,741,300 shares, an increase of 31.0% from the April 30th total of 7,437,200 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 66,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 146.3 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company's shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTIOF. Cormark lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. CIBC reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of National Bank of Canada in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Scotiabank raised shares of National Bank of Canada to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, National Bankshares lowered shares of National Bank of Canada from a "speculative buy" rating to an "underperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, National Bank of Canada has a consensus rating of "Hold".

National Bank of Canada Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of OTCMKTS NTIOF traded down $0.26 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $97.90. 104,635 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 81,375. National Bank of Canada has a 12-month low of $74.21 and a 12-month high of $100.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $87.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $89.02. The firm has a market cap of $38.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.47 and a beta of 1.01.

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The financial services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $2.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.33 billion. National Bank of Canada had a return on equity of 17.21% and a net margin of 24.65%. As a group, analysts expect that National Bank of Canada will post 7.63 earnings per share for the current year.

National Bank of Canada Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.7975 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 3.86%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. National Bank of Canada's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.37%.

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.