Shares of Intact Financial have more than doubled in the past five years with an 81.8% gain. It recently hit a new all-time high. That’s mainly due to savvy acquisitions that expanded the firm’s geographic reach.
The company keeps raising its dividend for investors. In fact, it has raised the annual rate each year for the past 19 years since its initial public offering in December 2004.
Meanwhile, the stock trades at 15.8 times the company’s forward earnings forecast.
INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. (Symbol IFC on Toronto; www.intactfc.com) offers investors exposure to Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance. Intact insures more than five million individuals and businesses. Its major brands are Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink and belairdirect.
In a bid to add value for investors, the company acquired OneBeacon Insurance Group for $1.7 billion U.S. in September 2017. The Minnesota-based insurance holding company focuses on property-casualty insurance. Through its businesses, the firm provides a range of specialty insurance products. That acquisition has been a big success for Intact.
Then, on June 1, 2021, to further add value, the company—in conjunction with Danish insurer Tryg A/S—completed its $9.3 billion U.S. takeover of U.K.-based RSA Insurance Group plc.
RSA offers a range of general and specialty insurance products and had long been viewed as a possible takeover target. Under the transaction, Intact took RSA’s Canadian business as well as its U.K. and international division. Tryg now owns RSA’s operations in Sweden and Norway.
RSA’s Denmark business remained jointly owned by the two firms—but in June 2022 they completed the sale of the unit for $2.52 billion. Intact received 50% of the proceeds.
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Blue Chip Stocks: Intact Financial’s latest acquisition should boost revenues from homeowners
Intact is now acquiring Jiffy Inc., Canada’s leading home maintenance app. The purchase price has not yet been disclosed.
Jiffy is an app-based service that connects homeowners with local service professionals to provide various home maintenance tasks such as plumbing, exterior repairs, appliance repair, electrical work and furniture assembly. Designed with the user in mind, Jiffy aims to make home maintenance simpler and more accessible for everyone.
To date, Jiffy certified pros have completed over 450,000 jobs and have maintained a median response time of less than five minutes and a 96% five-star rating from customers. Founded in 2015, Jiffy has grown steadily since its launch with operations in the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa and Calgary in Canada.
All of Jiffy’s team members, including co-founders Ryan Shupak and Paul Arlin, have joined Intact Financial Corporation and will continue to operate under the Jiffy brand.
Through this link up, Intact believes Jiffy will have the platform and capabilities to accelerate expansion of its services across more Canadian jurisdictions—while at the same time supporting Intact’s goals of engaging three out of four Canadian customers digitally and providing a top-notch customer experience.
With the March 2024 payment, Intact raised your quarterly dividend by 10.0% to $1.21 from $1.10. The new annual rate of $4.40 yields 1.9%.
The stock hit a new all-time high of $275.84 in December 2024. Even so, it still trades at an attractive 15.8 times the $16.51 a share that Intact is forecast to earn in 2025.
Recommendation in Dividend Advisor: Intact Financial Corp. is a buy.
