Intact Financial Corp INTAF

Raised Target

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Scotia Capital’s Phil Hardie  increased his Intact Financial Corp.  target to $235 from $231 with a “sector outperform” rating. The average is $223.08.

“Intact is Canada’s largest P&C insurer, with a successful long-term track record of exceeding industry ROE by 500 basis points, that is also a resilient, defensive-oriented leading financial services company with a strong management team and mid- to long-term growth prospects,” he said. “The pillars of its strategic road map for growth include expanding leadership in Canada, building a specialty solutions leader, and strengthening leading positions in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We view Intact as our “Go-To” defensive quality name largely from its defensive characteristics, solid growth outlook, and sustainable mid-teen ROEs supported by a favourable pricing environment. M&A also likely provides an embedded catalyst and given its current levels of excess capital and progress with the RSA integration, we believe deal activity is imminent over the next 12 to 24 months. We see several catalysts on the horizons that include (1) stronger-than-expected underwriting and operational performance once conditions normalize, (2) demonstrated value creation and performance enhancement from the RSA UK&I platform over the mid- to longer-term, and (3) potential resumption of larger scale M&A activity.”