Acquisition hurts Home Capital’s earnings

Article Excerpt

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $29 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 65.7 million; Market cap; $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; Dividend yield: 3.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.homecapital.com) paid $23.2 million for Canadian First Financial Bank (now called Home Bank) in 2015. This business offers a variety of services such as deposits, mortgages and wealth management, through 37 branches across the country. Due to losses at Home Bank, the company’s earnings in the three months ended June 30, 2016, fell 8.4%, to $66.3 million from $72.3 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings declined 3.9%, to $0.99 from $1.03, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue fell 3.3%, to $242.5 million from $250.9 million. Demand for new mortgages remains high, but overall revenue fell due to lower fee income and losses on the company’s own investment portfolio. Last year, the company identified the possibility that 45 independent mortgage brokers arranged loans based on falsified documents. Home Capital has now reviewed…