Short Interest in National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF) Drops By 45.7%

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,460,000 shares, a drop of 45.7% from the September 30th total of 13,740,100 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 43,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 171.9 days.

National Bank of Canada Stock Performance

Shares of OTCMKTS NTIOF traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $94.63. 27,094 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 61,631. National Bank of Canada has a 52 week low of $61.47 and a 52 week high of $96.01. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $92.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $85.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $32.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.25 and a beta of 1.07.

National Bank of Canada (OTCMKTS:NTIOF - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.18 billion for the quarter. National Bank of Canada had a return on equity of 17.29% and a net margin of 19.10%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that National Bank of Canada will post 7.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

National Bank of Canada Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th will be issued a $0.8081 dividend. This is a positive change from National Bank of Canada's previous dividend of $0.81. This represents a yield of 3.45%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 27th. National Bank of Canada's payout ratio is 45.66%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of National Bank of Canada from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, September 20th.

National Bank of Canada Company Profile

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.