Analyst Coverage... RBC’s Geoffrey Kwan raised his CI Financial Corp. target to $18 from $16 with a “sector perform” rating. Other changes include: BMO’s Tom MacKinnon to $19 from $20 with an “outperform” rating, TD Securities’ Graham Ryding to $17 from $18 with a “hold” rating and Scotia Capital’s Phil Hardie to $20 from $20.50 with a “sector perform” rating. The average is $19.75.
“CI’s results came in generally in line with expectations with the highlight being the solid improvement in net flows that was announced ahead of the release of the quarter’s financials,” said Mr. Hardie.
Management noted that the bulk of the quarter’s inflows largely related to the short-duration fixed income and high-interest savings-related products and will focus on converting those to long-term assets as market conditions improve. The team believes the benefits of recent operational and structural changes to the asset management platform position it well for further market share gains.
“Trimming target to $20.00 but maintaining SP rating. We view CI as a top beta play that offers significant upside potential in a blue-sky scenario with some key catalysts on the horizon, but material downside risk remains in a deeper more protracted market sell-off scenario.”