Bank of Nova Scotia Increases Holdings in Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED)

Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE:ED) by 367.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 224,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 176,824 shares during the quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia owned approximately 0.06% of Consolidated Edison worth $20,069,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Twin Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Consolidated Edison by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Twin Capital Management Inc. now owns 44,114 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,936,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Consolidated Edison by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,721,730 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $332,090,000 after buying an additional 812,885 shares during the period. Certior Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Consolidated Edison during the fourth quarter worth $436,000. Polymer Capital Management US LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Consolidated Edison during the fourth quarter worth $794,000. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Consolidated Edison by 262.9% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 2,613 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 1,893 shares during the period. 66.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on ED. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Consolidated Edison from $100.00 to $101.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Evercore ISI cut shares of Consolidated Edison from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Mizuho raised their target price on shares of Consolidated Edison from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Consolidated Edison from $116.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Consolidated Edison from $85.00 to $91.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $102.80.

Consolidated Edison Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ED opened at $105.90 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $38.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.27. Consolidated Edison, Inc. has a 52-week low of $87.28 and a 52-week high of $114.87. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $102.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07.

Consolidated Edison (NYSE:ED) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The utilities provider reported $0.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.63 billion. Consolidated Edison had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 8.62%. Equities analysts predict that Consolidated Edison, Inc. will post 5.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Consolidated Edison Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 19th were paid a dividend of $0.85 per share. This is an increase from Consolidated Edison’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.83. This represents a $3.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.21%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 19th. Consolidated Edison’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.89%.

Consolidated Edison Company Profile

Consolidated Edison, Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated electric, gas, and steam delivery businesses in the United States. It offers electric services to approximately 3.7 million customers in New York City and Westchester County; gas to approximately 1.1 million customers in Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of Queens, and Westchester County; and steam to approximately 1,530 customers in parts of Manhattan.