Enjoy 5.9% from IGM Financial

Strong asset growth of 9.7% year-over-year is the key driver of this firm’s rising fee income and revenue growth. It continues to make strategic investments to expand its global footprint and tap into high-growth markets outside Canada.

That should fuel an expected 11% earnings increase for this year. Meanwhile, the stock trades at just 10.0 times the company’s forward earnings forecast.

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IGM FINANCIAL INC. (Toronto symbol IGM; www.igmfinancial.com) is Canada’s largest independent asset management provider. Power Corp. owns 62.2% of the firm.

IGM has two main businesses: Mackenzie Financial sells funds and ETFs through independent brokers, and IG Wealth Management offers mutual funds and other services, such as portfolio management, through its over 3,100 advisors.

IGM last raised its quarterly dividend 4.7% with the January 2015 payment. The current annual rate of $2.25 a share yields a high 5.9%.

The company’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it manages. Thanks to the recent increase in stock market values, IGM’s assets under management (and advisement) rose 9.7%, to $260.1 billion as of July 31, 2024 from a year earlier.

Dividend Stocks: International investments into China and the U.S. should pay off

IGM realized a gain of $220.7 million on the $575 million sale of Investment Planning Counsel to Great-West Lifeco. IGM is using the proceeds to expand outside of Canada. In January 2023, it paid Power Corp $1.15 billion for an additional 13.9% stake in China Asset Management Co., Ltd. That increased its stake to 28.7%. China Asset is one of that country’s largest mutual fund sellers. In April 2023, IGM acquired a 20.5% stake in U.S. investment firm Rockefeller Capital Management for $835 million.

IGM’s revenue in the second quarter of 2024 rose 5.8%, to $816.3 million from $771.7 million a year earlier. That helped lift earnings by 4.5%, to $0.93 a share (or a total of $220.4 million) from $0.89 a share (or $211.4 million).

The company’s new businesses and the benefits from a plan to streamline its operations should lift IGM’s earnings in 2024 by 11% to $3.83 a share. The stock trades at just 10.0 times that estimate.

Recommendation in The Successful Investor: IGM Financial Inc. is a buy.

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.