Smart acquisitions should fuel their growth

Article Excerpt

INTACT FINANCIAL CORP. $50.86 (Toronto symbol IFC; SI Rating: Speculative) (416-341-1464; www.intactfc.com; Shares outstanding: 113.0 million; Market cap: $5.7 billion; Dividend yield: 2.7%) 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 has two product lines: Its personal products, which contribute 70% of its premiums, include automobile and property insurance that Intact sells to individuals. Commercial products provide the remaining 30% of premiums, and include auto, property, liability, surety and specialty coverage that Intact mainly sells to small- and medium-sized businesses. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, Intact earned $0.72 a share. That’s a big improvement over the $0.07 a share it lost a year earlier. Revenue rose 6.2%, to $1.19 billion from $1.12 billion. Intact continues to raise its home- and auto-insurance premiums. That’s offsetting weakness in commercial insurance premiums. Its combined ratio, or claims paid out divided by premiums taken in (the lower, the…