Is The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Is The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS) a buy, sell, or hold? The smart money is betting on the stock. The number of bullish hedge fund bets moved up by 1 lately. At the end of this article we will also compare BNS to other stocks including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA), Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET), and National Grid plc (ADR) (NYSE:NGG) to get a better sense of its popularity.
Follow Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS)
Follow Bank Of Nova Scotia (NYSE:BNS)
To the average investor there are numerous indicators stock traders have at their disposal to value stocks. A pair of the best indicators is composed of hedge fund and insider trading activity. We have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the best hedge fund managers can trounce the broader indices by a superb amount (see the details here).
Now, we’re going to check out the key action surrounding The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS).
How have hedgies been trading The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS)?
At Q3’s end, a total of 17 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 6% from the previous quarter. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exist a few noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes significantly (or already accumulated large positions).
Of the funds tracked by Insider Monkey, Tetrem Capital Management, managed by Daniel Bubis, holds the number one position in The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS). Tetrem Capital Management has a $155.1 million position in the stock, comprising 5.3% of its 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management, with a $76.9 million position; 0.2% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining hedge funds and institutional investors that hold long positions contain Peter Rathjens, Bruce Clarke and John Campbell’s Arrowstreet Capital, Jim Simons’s Renaissance Technologies and Neil Chriss’s Hutchin Hill Capital.
Consequently, specific money managers were leading the bulls’ herd. Highbridge Capital Management, managed by Glenn Russell Dubin, initiated the largest position in The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS). Highbridge Capital Management had $2.3 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. John Overdeck and David Siegel’s Two Sigma Advisors also initiated a $0.8 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new BNS investors: Alec Litowitz and Ross Laser’s Magnetar Capital and Matthew Hulsizer’s PEAK6 Capital Management.
Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS). We will take a look at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA), Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET), National Grid plc (ADR) (NYSE:NGG), and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Grp, Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:SMFG). This group of stocks’ market values match BNS’s market value.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBVA | 4 | 4202 | 0 |
| MET | 47 | 1723169 | -8 |
| NGG | 6 | 165920 | 1 |
| SMFG | 14 | 35784 | -3 |
As you can see these stocks had an average of 18 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $482 million. That figure was $327 million in BNS’s case. Metlife Inc (NYSE:MET) is the most popular stock in this table, while the least popular one is Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (ADR) (NYSE:BBVA. In comparison, The Bank of Nova Scotia (USA) (NYSE:BNS), with 17 bullish hedge fund positions, is not the least popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still below average. This may imply that it is not a stock worth considering; therefore, we’d rather spend our time focusing on stocks that hedge funds are collectively the fondest of, such as MET in this particular case.
