The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday, Feb. 19, edition that Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Mike Rizvanovic has lowered his recommendation for iA Financial to "sector perform" from "sector outperform" after disappointing quarterly results. The Globe's Darcy Keith writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Rizvanovic has an unchanged share target of $188. Analysts on average target the shares at $182.43. Mr. Rizvanovic termed the miss as "meaningful" for both fourth quarter earnings per share and return on equity, due in part to some adverse seasonality factors and elevated incentive compensation versus a year ago. Mr. Rizvanovic says in a note: "While there were certainly some positive elements in the quarter, results overall were underwhelming relative to what the lifeco's peers reported, and well below consensus expectations (and our estimate), which admittedly may have been too optimistic heading into earnings season. While we still believe that iA Financial has strong upside potential over the longer-term as it continues to focus on its very targeted business mix, we expect the shares to sell-off on the back of Q4 results, and likely remain under a bit of pressure in the absence of any near-term catalysts."