Topic: How To Invest

Dear Pat: I want your advice on First National Financial Corp. I am 86 years old and need to focus on dividend return rather than future growth potential. Thank you.

Article Excerpt

First National Financial Corp., $28.80, symbol FN on Toronto, (Shares outstanding: 60.0 million; Market cap: $1.8 billion; www.firstnational.ca), is Canada’s largest non-bank originator and underwriter of residential mortgages. It held $94.3 billion in mortgages under administration as of March 31, 2016. The company focuses its lending on mortgages for single-family homes and small apartment buildings. It has a limited number of commercial loans. First National was an income trust in May 2006 when it sold units to the public at $10 each and began trading on the Toronto Exchange. It then switched over to a conventional corporation on January 1, 2011. To free up capital for new lending, the company sells its mortgages to financial institutions. It also securitizes those loans by packaging them together and selling them as mortgage bonds. That securitization tends to lower earnings in the short term, but offers higher profit in the long term. Low interest rates have fuelled demand for new mortgages. As a result,…