Home Capital prepared for new rules

Article Excerpt

HOME CAPITAL GROUP INC. $27 (Toronto symbol HCG; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap; $1.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.9; Dividend yield: 3.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.homecapital.com) paid $23.2 million in 2015 for Canadian First Financial Bank (now called Home Bank). This business offers a variety of services, such as deposits, mortgages and wealth management, through 37 branches across the country. Due to losses at Home Bank, the company’s earnings in the third quarter of 2016, fell 8.6%, to $66.2 million from $72.4 million a year earlier. Per-share earnings declined just 1.9%, to $1.01 from $1.03, on fewer shares outstanding. Revenue fell 1.3%, to $243.9 million from $247.2 million. Demand for new mortgages remains high, but overall revenue fell due to lower fee income. Ottawa recently announced tougher standards for all lenders that access mortgage insurance from the government-backed Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. As well, it now requires those lenders to apply a new, tougher stress test…