Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Competitors

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) and Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and risk.

Is FITB or BNS more profitable?

Fifth Third Bancorp has a net margin of 17.97% compared to Bank of Nova Scotia's net margin of 8.83%. Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity of 13.31% beat Bank of Nova Scotia's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fifth Third Bancorp	17.97%	13.31%	1.15%
Bank of Nova Scotia	8.83%	11.27%	0.60%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of FITB or BNS?

83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.1% of Bank of Nova Scotia shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, FITB or BNS?

Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bank of Nova Scotia has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate FITB or BNS?

Fifth Third Bancorp presently has a consensus price target of $47.80, indicating a potential upside of 12.52%. Bank of Nova Scotia has a consensus price target of $81.00, indicating a potential upside of 42.68%. Given Bank of Nova Scotia's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Bank of Nova Scotia is more favorable than Fifth Third Bancorp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fifth Third Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.82
Bank of Nova Scotia	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44

Is FITB or BNS a better dividend stock?

Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Bank of Nova Scotia pays an annual dividend of $3.23 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.7%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 46.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Bank of Nova Scotia pays out 94.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Fifth Third Bancorp has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years and Bank of Nova Scotia has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, FITB or BNS?

Bank of Nova Scotia has higher revenue and earnings than Fifth Third Bancorp. Fifth Third Bancorp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bank of Nova Scotia, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fifth Third Bancorp	$13.28B	2.12	$2.31B	$3.22	13.19
Bank of Nova Scotia	$55.90B	1.26	$5.70B	$3.41	16.65

Does the media prefer FITB or BNS?

In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 5 more articles in the media than Bank of Nova Scotia. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 23 mentions for Bank of Nova Scotia. Fifth Third Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.39 beat Bank of Nova Scotia's score of 1.20 indicating that Fifth Third Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Fifth Third Bancorp	20 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Bank of Nova Scotia	16 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Fifth Third Bancorp beats Bank of Nova Scotia on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.