The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Sells 1,632,753 Shares of Bank of Nova Scotia (The) $BNS

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia (The) (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) by 23.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,336,643 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 1,632,753 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Bank of Nova Scotia were worth $369,748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of Nova Scotia during the fourth quarter worth about $1,368,456,000. FIL Ltd raised its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 49.5% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 16,489,540 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,216,157,000 after purchasing an additional 5,461,052 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Bank of Nova Scotia by 3,120.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,556,295 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $262,284,000 after purchasing an additional 3,445,856 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in Bank of Nova Scotia during the third quarter valued at approximately $138,394,000. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp bought a new stake in Bank of Nova Scotia during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,032,000. Institutional investors own 49.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BNS. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia from $98.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Bank of Nova Scotia in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.00.

Bank of Nova Scotia Price Performance

Shares of Bank of Nova Scotia stock opened at $86.89 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $106.44 billion, a PE ratio of 16.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Bank of Nova Scotia has a 12 month low of $55.21 and a 12 month high of $90.47. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $84.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.63.

Bank of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS) (TSE:BNS) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The bank reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $7.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.13 billion. Bank of Nova Scotia had a return on equity of 13.16% and a net margin of 13.38%.Bank of Nova Scotia’s quarterly revenue was up 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of Nova Scotia will post 6.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia, commonly known as Scotiabank, is a Canadian multinational banking and financial services company founded in 1832 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It is one of Canada’s largest banks and provides a broad range of financial services to retail, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. The bank combines a domestic Canadian franchise with an extensive international presence to serve customers across multiple markets.

Scotiabank’s core activities include personal and commercial banking, wealth management, corporate and investment banking, capital markets, and global transaction banking.