IGM Financial Inc. (IGM.TO)

The mutual fund industry is under pressure and is going to remain under pressure. There are new disclosure requirements coming out in July and he doesn’t know how that will impact it. Exchange traded funds are taking a bite. At the same time, this company has benefited from the stock market upsurge and it is a pretty good yielder. This is not an industry that he would like to be in right now.

Just announced they were cutting some of their fees, meaning their MERs will be lower and less income. This resulted in a drop in the stock price. If you want to be exposed to this company, he would do it through either Power Financial (PWF-T) or Power Corp. (POW-T).

Attractive 4.5% dividend yield. Business model has fat margins. It came from 20% overvalued to 5% undervalued. There is concern there will be a dramatic change once they reformat their statements.

61% owned by power financial. 4.2% dividend. Their assets will grow. She decided to hold Canadian banks. It is fine if you want a nice yield.

This is a good company. Very well-managed. Their fund performance is decent. He was hoping for a share buyback. 4% dividend yield. You will do well with the stock.

(Market Call Minute.) Not the top performer in the asset management group. He really likes the sector, and they’ll probably ultimately get this right. Going through a restructuring. He would like to see some positives on the numbers before buying.

A solid company. One of their advantages is that they have a proprietary network of advisors and have their own funds, which they basically recommend to their clients. A 4% plus dividend. Not a fast grower, but very steady.

Has 2 divisions, McKenzie and Investors Group and there has tended to be redemptions on the McKenzie side, but net additions on the Investors Group side so these 2 divisions tend to go in opposite directions. There hasn’t been a lot of earnings growth. Hasn’t gone anywhere for the last 5-6 years. Pays a nice dividend so you are being paid to be patient. The dividend is very well covered and the redemptions from McKenzie have slowed down considerably. New management is really focusing on distributions.

Asset management companies, in general, are a good spot to be in at the moment. They have the consulting group of about 4500 that are wealth advisors throughout the country and provide financial planning and a high level of service to the clientele. They also have Mackenzie Financial, which has had some tough times over the last few years in terms of redemptions and performance. Also, have an independent planning group. Thinks we are at a point now where things are kind of firing on all cylinders for the 1^st time in a while. Starting to see momentum turn up in sales. Markets are good and doing well. The management team is focused on reigniting growth.

Among the mutual fund companies, this is particularly vulnerable to the growth of ETFs. They have a huge number of investors who are served by an army of advisors and many of them are smaller investors. This is a high cost provider and many of those investors might be better served by ETFs. As they become more educated, they may learn that. Thinks they got hit today because they didn’t show the growth in assets under management when they reported.

Good solid company. Likely to be a beneficiary of a rebound in equity markets. Terrific marketing organization. An open question is do you play it by owning Investors, Power Financial which gives you Great West Life (GWO-T) as well.

(A Top Pick Jan 8/13. Up 39.06%.) He tends to buy on dips in a bull market, so wouldn’t be adding at this time. Wait for a pullback. With this, you are getting a dividend yield well over the market and as the market continues to go up, it is going to do better than the markets.

(Market Call Minute.) Much cheaper than a Gluskin Sheff (GS-T) and has gobs of cash. Wouldn’t be a buyer, but would Hold.

(A Top Pick Jan 8/13. Up 34.6%.) Getting the double leverage of an asset manager so they get the leverage of markets going up in their AUM growths and more fees come in as well with the leverage of people converting their bonds and cash into equities. Margins are going to expand because there is a rotation out of bonds and into equities.

(A Top Pick March 20/13. Up 13.23%.) (BNN said March 20 but we show it as April 29.-Bill.) Likes asset management companies. Felt that the exposure they had on the equity side will continue to take hold as people place more money in equities and less in bonds and other products. This is now a “wait-and-see” stock.