IGM FINANCIAL INC. $45 (Toronto symbol IGM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 257.5 million; Market cap: $11.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.2; Dividend yield: 4.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.igmfinancial.com) reported that on November 30, 2011, it had $120.2 billion of assets under management. That’s down 4.3% from $125.6 billion a year earlier.
The company’s clients sold more investments in response to recent stock-market volatility, and share prices were lower than a year ago; these were main reasons for the drop.
IGM’s fee income rises and falls with the value of the mutual funds and other securities it manages, so the company’s revenue and earnings suffer when the value of these assets falls. Still, low interest rates will probably spur investors to shift from fixed-income investments to equity-based mutual funds over the next few months.
IGM Financial is a buy.