Spinoffs

One of the ways a company can try to unlock its own hidden value is by creating a separate company out of a corporate subsidiary. The parent company can either sell stock in the new company to the public, or spin it off—hand the stock out to its own investors.

Often, the parent company starts by selling a portion of the new company to the public, to establish a market and a following among investors. That way, by the time of the spin-off, stock in the new company may be liquid enough to be sold relatively easily, or retained with some confidence as a worthwhile investment.

In our experience, and in most academic studies of the subject, this helps the parent and its corporate spinoff. Both generally do better than comparable companies for at least several years after the spinoff takes place.

When a company carries out a spinoff, it sets up one of its subsidiaries or divisions as a separate company, then hands out shares in the new company to its own shareholders. It may hand out the shares as a special dividend, or give its shareholders an opportunity to swap shares of the parent company for the shares of the newly established spinoff.

Study after study has shown that after an initial adjustment period of a few months, stock spinoffs tend to outperform groups of comparable stocks for several years. (For that matter, the parent companies also tend to outperform comparable firms for several years after a spinoff.) The above-average performance of spinoffs makes sense for a couple of reasons.

First, company managers naturally prefer to acquire or expand their assets, not get rid of them. Getting rid of assets reduces a company’s total potential profit. The management of a parent company will only hand out a subsidiary to its own investors if it’s nearly certain that the subsidiary, and the parent, will be better off after the spinoff than before.

Second, spinoffs involve a lot of work and legal fees. Companies only have an incentive to do spinoffs under two sets of favourable conditions: When they feel it isn’t a good time to sell (which often means it’s a good time to buy); or, when they feel the assets they plan to spin off will be worth substantially more in the future, possibly within a few years.

Quite often, a big company will spin off a small subsidiary because it feels the subsidiary is a tiny gem, but that it’s too small to make an impact on the much larger financial statements and market capitalization of the parent.

At TSI Network we’ve had great success with a number of spun off stocks over the years. That’s especially true of the many spinoffs we have recommended that have gone up after they began trading, and have later attracted a takeover bid at a substantial premium over the market price.

Needless to say, things don’t always work out this well. Spinoffs and their parents do sometimes run into unforeseeable woes. But on the whole, in investing, spinoffs are the closest thing you can find to a sure thing.

See how you can make the most of these special investment opportunities by reading our special free report Spinoff Stock Investigator: All You Need to Know about Reaping the Rewards of Spinoffs.

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Spinoffs Library Archives

Split should benefit both

WESTERN DIGITAL CORP. $45 is a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol WDC; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 347.8 million; Market cap: $15.7 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.westerndigital.com) completed the spinoff of its flash memory business as Sandisk Corp. (Nasdaq symbol SNDK) on February 24, 2025. Investors… Read More

Keep our stock updates top of mind

BEACON ROOFING SUPPLY INC. $122 is a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol BECN; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 61.6 million; Market cap: $7.5 billion; No dividend paid; Takeover Target Rating: Highest; www.becn.com) distributes residential and non-residential roofing and building products to professional contractors, home builders, building owners, lumberyards, and retailers… Read More

Keep holding these two for now

On October 16, 2023, the old NCR Corp. (New York symbol NCR) split itself into two separate firms. Investors received one share of NCR Atleos (which makes ATMs) for every two NCR shares they held. The remaining firm changed its name to NCR Voyix.
The split… Read More

Falling consumer confidence adds risk

Restaurant franchisor FAT Brands recently set up its Twin Hospitality businesses as one separate, publicly traded company. Even following the spinoff, FAT Brands still has a huge holding company discount; however, we feel investors should avoid it as well as Twin Hospitality given reduced discretionary… Read More

Activist sees value in this stock

COGNIZANT TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS CORP. $80 is a buy. The company (Nasdaq symbol CTSH; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 494.6 million; Market cap: $39.6 billion; Dividend yield: 1.6%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.cognizant.com) provides solutions to complex software development and maintenance problems that companies face as they transition to a digitized… Read More

Tariff fight could hurt these takeovers

These two Canadian firms are under activist pressure to improve their operations, or put themselves up for sale. However, the Canadian government would probably block any takeover offer from a U.S.-based firm due to current tension over trade policy and tariffs.
INTERRENT REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST… Read More

Spinoff lifts this sleepy stock

Cooking equipment maker Middleby is good example of how an activist can unlock hidden value for shareholders.
The stock has moved mostly sideways over the past 10 years, but it jumped 15% in early 2025 after the company became the target of an activist investor. That… Read More

Spinoff Spotlight: South Bow Corp.

SOUTH BOW CORP. $37 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol SOBO; Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 208.0 million; Market cap: $7.7 billion; Dividend yield: 7.7%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.southbow.com) took its current form on October 1, 2024, when TC Energy Corp. (Toronto symbol TRP) spun it off. Investors… Read More

WELL Health aims for pure-play gains

Following a long series of acquisitions, WELL Health is now the largest private-sector operator of outpatient medical clinics in Canada. Despite acquisitional risk, the stock is less volatile than it might seem as the company gets most of its revenue from Canada’s healthcare sector, which… Read More

Belgium’s Titan launches U.S. IPO

TITAN AMERICA SA $16 is a hold. The company (New York symbol TTAM; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 184.4 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion; No dividends paid; Takeover Target Rating: Lowest; www.titanamerica.com) makes cement and other building materials, mainly for customers in Florida and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
On February 7,… Read More

Keep our stock updates top of mind

HEWLETT-PACKARD ENTERPRISE CO. $22 is a hold. This firm (New York symbol HPE; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $28.6 billion; Dividend yield: 2.4%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.hpe.com) agreed to acquire Juniper Networks Inc. (New York symbol JNPR) in January 2024 for $14.0 billion in cash… Read More

Trisura escapes impact of LA fires

Specialized insurer Trisura took its current form on June 22, 2017, when Brookfield Asset Management Inc. (now Brookfield Corp.) spun off its specialty insurance business as Trisura. Investors received one Trisura share for every 170 Brookfield shares they held.
After moving sideways for a few years,… Read More

This spinoff is off to a good start

WK KELLOGG CO. $20 is a spinoff buy. The company (New York symbol KLG; Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 85.8 million; Market cap: $1.7 billion; Dividend yield: 3.3%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.wkkellogg.com) makes breakfast cereals and related products for the North American market.
In October 2023, the old Kellogg Co… Read More

We still like these fast-food spinoffs

In November 2016, Yum Brands set up its Chinese operations as Yum China and gifted its investors with shares in the new company. Specifically, investors received one share of the new firm for each YUM share they held.
Both stocks continue to rebound from pandemic closures,… Read More

LKQ may seek a buyer

LKQ CORP. $39 is a hold. The company (Nasdaq symbol LKQ; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 260.0 million; Market cap: $10.1 billion; Dividend yield: 3.1%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.lkqcorp.com) sells replacement parts for cars and light trucks in North America and Europe.
LKQ stands for “Like, Kind & Quality.” That’s… Read More

These three don’t inspire us

We pay close attention to activist investors, as they tend to target undervalued companies that could boost their value with asset sales or spinoffs. However, we see better opportunities than these three activist targets (including box).
UBER TECHNOLOGIES INC. $81 is a hold for aggressive investors. The… Read More

We anticipate a rebound for embecta

The shares of embecta are now down over 60% since Becton Dickinson (see page 17) spun it off as a separate firm in April 2022.
That decline is largely due to fears that new GLP-1 weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic, will cut demand from diabetics… Read More

Spinoff spotlight

TC ENERGY CORP. $65 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol TRP; Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 1.04 billion; Market cap: $67.6 billion; Dividend yield: 5.2%; Takeover Target Rating: Medium; www.tcenergy.com) spun off its oil pipeline business as a separate company called South Bow Corp. (Toronto symbol SOBO). Investors… Read More