Bank of Nova Scotia Lowers Position in Enbridge Inc $ENB

Bank of Nova Scotia lessened its holdings in shares of Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) by 38.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,369,350 shares of the pipeline company’s stock after selling 2,775,390 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned about 0.20% of Enbridge worth $198,075,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ENB. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Enbridge during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,113,368,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Enbridge in the 1st quarter worth $208,490,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Enbridge by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 96,404,986 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $4,371,580,000 after buying an additional 3,217,961 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Enbridge by 20.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 17,785,430 shares of the pipeline company’s stock worth $818,620,000 after acquiring an additional 2,989,992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Enbridge during the 2nd quarter worth $132,105,000. 54.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on ENB. Wall Street Zen cut Enbridge from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Enbridge from $67.00 to $72.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Enbridge in a report on Monday, December 1st. Argus upped their target price on Enbridge from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of Enbridge in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.00.

Enbridge Price Performance

ENB opened at $48.14 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.09. The firm has a market cap of $105.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45 and a beta of 0.68. Enbridge Inc has a 1 year low of $39.73 and a 1 year high of $50.54.

Enbridge (NYSE:ENB) (TSE:ENB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The pipeline company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by ($0.06). Enbridge had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 10.51%. The company had revenue of $7 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.45 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.55 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Enbridge Inc will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Enbridge Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be issued a $0.97 dividend. This is a boost from Enbridge’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.94. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th. This represents a $3.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.1%. Enbridge’s payout ratio is 147.80%.

About Enbridge

Enbridge Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an energy infrastructure company. The company operates through five segments: Liquids Pipelines, Gas Transmission and Midstream, Gas Distribution and Storage, Renewable Power Generation, and Energy Services. The Liquids Pipelines segment operates pipelines and related terminals to transport various grades of crude oil and other liquid hydrocarbons in Canada and the United States.