Cerity Partners LLC Increases Stake in The Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS)

Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in shares of The Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) by 46.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,269 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 2,307 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia were worth $354,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia by 1.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 45,691,098 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,083,057,000 after buying an additional 725,489 shares during the period. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 3.4% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 22,567,680 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,028,861,000 after purchasing an additional 736,807 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 8.7% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 15,684,313 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $665,191,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256,868 shares during the last quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. grew its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 1.4% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 13,387,765 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $600,211,000 after purchasing an additional 183,008 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 4.0% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 8,194,388 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $368,423,000 after purchasing an additional 314,943 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BNS has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays initiated coverage on Bank of Nova Scotia in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $70.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Bank of Nova Scotia in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of Nova Scotia has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

Shares of BNS stock opened at $46.57 on Friday. The Bank of Nova Scotia has a fifty-two week low of $39.79 and a fifty-two week high of $51.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.30, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $46.45.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The bank reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.06. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 11.51% and a net margin of 10.71%. The business had revenue of $14.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Bank of Nova Scotia will post 4.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of Nova Scotia Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.7843 per share. This is a positive change from Bank of Nova Scotia’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 1st. This represents a $3.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.74%. Bank of Nova Scotia’s payout ratio is presently 34.96%.

Bank of Nova Scotia Company Profile

The Bank of Nova Scotia provides various banking products and services in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Colombia, the Caribbean and Central America, and internationally. It operates through Canadian Banking, International Banking, Global Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets segments.