This insurance company offers products in both the U.S. and Canada. The company beat Wall Street’s earnings estimates by $0.84 las quarter. The shares have a current annual dividend yield of 1.99%, paid quarterly.
Intact Financial Corporation (IFC.TO, IFCZF)
From Weiss Stock Ratings Heat Maps
Following last week’s Federal Reserve meeting—a meeting at which Chair Jay Powell hinted that quantitative easing (QE) will soon get dialed back—rates briefly dropped. But they quickly reversed course, then kept on rising.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield has now jumped 20 basis points to 1.5% in only a couple days. That is its highest level since July. And, just like this time, that level was reached after the Fed hinted at tapering its asset-buying program.
Shorter-term Treasuries that are especially sensitive to Fed policy also shot higher. The five-year yield got to within a whisker of 1% … the highest since February 2020. By historical standards, those are obviously still low … but the action is still noteworthy because it’s a change in trend.
If this continues, it’s likely to create new winners AND losers in the stock market.
For instance, we’re likely to see so-called value stocks and more economically sensitive names outperform. At the same time, high-growth stocks and sectors like technology may underperform. Core financials—including banks—could benefit. But higher-yield, slower-growth stocks like utilities could lose some steam.
Those kinds of follow-on moves have important implications for investors like you. Specifically, you can use your Weiss Ratings Heat Maps to target more of the winners, while dialing back your exposure to more of the likely losers.
You can find some strong industrial and financial names in your Highest-Rated Stocks Heat Map. Intact Financial Rated “B”) is sitting at the top of that map right now. The Toronto-based company sells property and casualty insurance across Canada, as well as specialty and other commercial and personal insurance products in the U.S., U.K., and Europe.
IFC shares have risen more than 11% in the past year. Many brokers allow you to buy Canadian shares on Canadian markets. But in this case, Intact Financial also has U.S. tracking shares trading under the ticker IFCZF on the over-the-counter markets.
Mike Larson, Weiss Stock Ratings Heat Maps, 1-877-934-7778, September 28, 2021