Stock price when the opinion was issued
All the insurance names, both in Canada and the US, continue to work. If interest rates do, in fact, go higher, that will only be beneficial for lifecos and other insurers. The chart looks fantastic. Good run, so there is some weakening in the intermediate term.
If a long-term holding, best thing you can do is sit on your hands and do nothing except participate in the DRIP program. Especially if he's right on the broader call of rates being 8-10% in the secular bear market of 2030-40, should be a big tailwind for insurers.
FFH is in his Canadian dividend strategy. BRK.B is in his global strategy.
Both are insurance-driven companies that are partly holding companies. Diversified businesses. Breakup NAV (not that they'd ever be broken up) is significantly higher than current share price. And that makes both of these a buy. Both are in the lower-risk category of companies.
Doing everything right. Combined ratios are improving. P&C insurer, big exposure to reinsurance, global & NA. Serial acquirer. Great management team. Advantaged by rising property values. Extreme weather means the risk goes up, and so do the premiums. Earns a lot of investment income on its growing float. Undemanding multiple.
Good operational management long term. Stock's more than doubled in the last year and a half, and he'd have to dig to find out why. Value, instead of growth, has been in favour for the last 6 months or so. Its counterpart, BRK.B, has also done well (but not doubled).
If he finds an answer, he'll be sure to post it on social media.
Everyone was shorting it in the 2000s, and now it's one of the most favoured stocks on the TSX. Up 13% YTD. He owns it in TFSAs. Helped by global acquisitions. Combined ratio ~94%. Underwriting has improved, costs kept in line. Almost every operation is has is showing profitability.
Estimated PE for this year is about 10x, normal for insurance industry. Has hit a high, but it's one you want to own for the long term. He continues to buy for clients.
Bellwether stock. Good time to buy as a core holding when it pulls back. Decades of execution, and that will continue. Yield is 1.4%.
(Analysts’ price target is $1823.81)