Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) is the 3rd largest Canadian bank ranked by market cap.

Bank of Nova Scotia’s financial metrics should immediately stand out for value-focused dividend investors. The company has a high dividend yield of 4.1% and a low price-to-earnings ratio of 12.3. This helps the company to rank highly using The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing.

Bank of Nova Scotia released its 3rd quarter results this morning. This article covers those results in detail.

Brief Overview

Bank of Nova Scotia operates in 4 segments:

The Canadian Banking segment is the company’s largest.It generated $930 million in net profit in the company’s most recent quarter. The Canadian Banking segment provides Canada with retail, small business, commercial banking, and wealth management services. The segment has more than 10 million customers and 1,000 branches across Canada.

The International Banking segment is Bank of Nova Scotia’s second largest based on net profit. The segment generated $589 million in profit in the company’s most recent quarter. The International Banking segment provides retail and commercial banking services in South and Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia. The segment has around 2,000 branches and 13 million customers.

The Global Banking & Markets segment generated $421 million in net profit in Bank of Nova Scotia’s most recent quarter.The segment serves large institutional and government clients with wholesale banking and capital markets services, globally. Services include:Corporate lending, investment banking, trading and research, and commodities hedging.

The ‘Other’ segment is by far Bank of Nova Scotia’s smallest. It generated just $19 million in net profit in the most recent quarter. The segment is a ‘catch all’ that includes smaller operating units, business line elimination items, and other miscellaneous corporate items. Due to its small size relative to Bank of Nova Scotia, the Other segment will not be a primary focus of this article.