Here’s our Pick of the Month – April 2010

Article Excerpt

INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $42.95 (Toronto symbol IFC; SI Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 119.9 million; Market cap: $5.1 billion; Dividend yield: 3.2%) is Canada’s largest provider of property and casualty insurance, based on premiums. Its brands include Intact Insurance, Canada BrokerLink, belairdirect and Grey Power. Intact Financial has over four million clients. It controls roughly 11% of the Canadian insurance market. Intact was formerly ING Canada, a unit of Dutch financial services group ING Groep NV. In February 2009, ING Groep sold ING Canada to the public. The company then changed its name to Intact Financial. Intact has two product lines: Its personal products contribute 70% of its premiums and include automobile and property insurance that Intact sells to individuals. Commercial (30% of premiums) includes auto, property, liability, surety and specialty coverage that Intact mainly sells to small- and medium-sized businesses. In the three months ended December 31, 2009, Intact earned $0.81 a share. A year earlier, it lost $0.53 a share…