Analyst update * National Bank’s Jaeme Gloyn raised his Intact Financial Corp. (IFC-T) target to $296 from $294 with an “outperform” rating. Others making changes include: TD Cowen’s Mario Mendonca to $300 from $293 with a “buy” rating and Raymond James’ Stephen Boland to $290 from $265 with an “outperform” rating. The average is $277.14.
“A very resilient quarter from Intact, given an impressive ROE of 16 per cent (last 12 months) despite huge catastrophe losses (22 percentage points) vs. street at 15 per cent and Q3-23 at 12 per cent,” said Mr. Gloyn. “The EPS beat was driven by excellent underwriting, excluding catastrophe losses, as the current year loss ratio of 55 per cent improved from 57 per cent in Q3-23. As a result, the combined of 104 per cent beat the street at 108 per cent, as all lines outperformed. Further demonstrating the underwriting strength, all lines delivered at least in-line current year loss ratio performance (except UK&I). Personal Property and Commercial Canada highlighted the quarter with 5 percentage point current-year loss ratio beats, each. BVPS surprisingly increased 3 per cent quarter-over-quarter (street down 1 per cent) to $90.60 (street $87.39). Overall, a robust quarter that supports the continued upward trajectory in the share price. Looking ahead, we believe IFC is well positioned to benefit from favourable conditions that persist in the P&C Insurance industry through 2025. We reiterate our view IFC merits a premium valuation given the track record of consistent execution to deliver 10-per-cent EPS growth and to outperform its competitors on ROE.”