The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Feb. 29, edition that National Bank Financial analyst Gabriel Dechaine has reaffirmed his "sector perform" recommendation for Bank of Nova Scotia. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Dechaine tweaked his share target ahead by a loonie to $67. Analysts on average target the shares at $66.94. Mr. Dechaine notes that Scotiabank had a good quarter, despite lowered expectations. The lender posted better-than-anticipated first quarter results on Tuesday that led investors to push up its shares by $2.03 to close at $65.90. Adjusted to exclude certain items, Scotiabank earned $1.69 a share, beating the $1.61 expected by the Street. Mr. Dechaine says in a note: "Scotiabank's Canadian segment delivered impressive 10-per-cent PTPP growth, on the back of 30 basis points of year-over-year NIM expansion and positive operating leverage of 4 per cent. The bank's margin performance continues to benefit from a shrinking mortgage book, which is not a permanent feature of the bank's market strategy. We recall comments during Scotiabank's Investor Day, indicating that it plans on resuming mortgage book growth over the course of fiscal 2024, which may dampen the bank's NIM momentum."