Intact Financial still has room to move higher

Article Excerpt

When choosing stocks for the Finance sector of their portfolio, most investors gravitate toward banks. However, there are many high quality, non-bank financial stocks that you should also consider. For instance, we think Intact Financial offers investors a particularly unique combination of value and growth. For the 12 months ended October 3, 2022, while the S&P/TSX Composite Index fell 5.6%, Intact shares climbed an impressive 19.9%. That also bettered each of Canada’s Big Five banks—even as the insurer maintained a dividend yielding 2%. In fact, the stock hit a new all-time high recently—and the shares are now up a spectacular 361% since we first recommended them at $42.95 in our April 2010 issue. We think Intact Financial is poised to keep moving even higher for our conservative investors. INTACT FINANCIAL, $197.81, symbol; IFC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 175.4 million; Market cap: $34.3 billion; Finance sector; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk; Dividend yield: 2.0%; www.intactfc.com) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty coverage: it…