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This is part of a triumvirate in the bond/insurance business, along with S&P and Fitch. These 3 companies absolutely dominate the bond rating business. If you are going to issue bonds, you have to be rated, and you have to go to this company and get a rating, a guaranteed source of income. They are under a bit of a cloud because they are being investigated on their ratings of credit secured obligations prior to 2008, and that is probably baked into the stock. Dividend yield of 1.57%. (Analysts’ price target is $108.40.)
Insurers benefit particularly when interest rates go up. Companies like this get billions of dollars in premiums, and they have to do something with those premiums until they have to make payouts. What they’ve typically done is buy bonds. If you are buying bonds at 2%, you are not making a lot of money. If those bonds go up to 3%, you are making 50% more. You can buy this one right now at 80% of BV. He also thinks the dividend is going to rise very sharply. Dividend yield of 1.94%. (Analysts’ price target is $69.18.)
Made an acquisition of Whistler, which was important, because previously they were entirely subjected to the weather conditions of Colorado. By moving north to an entirely different weather system, it basically doubles its capabilities. The weak Cdn$ is very attractive for both American and European skiers. Vail is basically becoming a 4-season resort operator. Millennials spend a lot of money buying experiences rather than hard goods. He expects the earnings to go up strongly once they consolidate Whistler. Dividend yield of 2%. (Analysts’ price target is $183.71.)