Smart acquisitions fuel their growth

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INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $55.54 (Toronto symbol IFC; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 115.1 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; Dividend yield: 2.6%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance, based on premiums. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink, belairdirect and Grey Power. Intact has two product lines: its personal products, which contribute 70% of its premiums, include automobile and property insurance that Intact sells to individuals. Commercial products provide the remaining 30% of premiums, and include auto, property, liability, surety and specialty coverage that Intact mainly sells to small- and medium-sized businesses. In the quarter ended March 31, 2011, Intact earned $1.42 a share, up 19.3% from $1.19 a year earlier. Sales rose 6.7%, to $1.23 billion from $1.15 billion. Intact continues to raise its home, commercial and auto-insurance premiums. Even so, its combined ratio, or claims paid out divided by premiums taken in (the lower, the better), worsened to 94.6% in the latest quarter, from 93.2%. But that…