CI Financial Corp (CIX.TO)

This company is in a very sweet spot right now. Really great asset growth and is trading at about 16-17 times earnings. Great dividend yield which should continue. Funds have been doing incredibly well through this period. A lot of international funds and overseas money. Thinks it will continue to increase their dividends.

High quality company. Asset management is a good spot. Feels it has the ability to continue to take market share. The knock has always been that it is expensive. It will probably always be expensive because it is such a high-quality operation. You could make an argument for holding it here. If the market continues to do well, they will do well.

Sector has been out of favour for a long time. New net buyers. Shares had a great year and there is lots of runway going forward. 3.41% yield and a strong dividend policy.

Had a terrific run. Just had their best quarter since Q3 2000. However, he took down his target price by $1 to $36 just because it had such a terrific run. Trading at 2 standard deviations above their 5-year average. Solid assets under administration with good sales momentum. Thinks AGF Management (AGF.B-T) has a lot more upside.

Very well run. Very good at managing and maintaining their costs. Have come out of a tough equity market with very good equity returns. Good asset growth. Have a very strong policy of returning capital to their shareholders.

(A Top Pick June 8/12. Up 54.83%.)

This, along with all the other asset managers, is benefiting from improving market returns which increases their assets. Also, there is a slight shift to equities from income products and equity funds generally garner a higher management fee. If you think the markets are going to continue to do fairly well, she would continue to Hold.

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-T) would like to take this in at some point in time, but they are not in any big rush and are not going to overpay to get this. Have expanded their wealth management business quite significantly over the last number of years.

Biggest shareholder would be Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-T) which controls a good chunk of the company. There is a lot of speculation that they may consolidate their interest at some point at which time you could see the stock move up 15%-20%. This company is an asset manager and in this environment, asset managers do very well. Thinks this one is fairly valued. There are others that he likes such as Gluskin Sheff (GS-T).

(Market Call Minute.) Based on its current valuation, he would not be a buyer. Extremely well run. Committed to paying and growing dividends.

These kinds of mutual fund companies get hurt in this environment. At the end of the day the ETF market has been very, very strong. Behind this one is BNS and it is supporting the stock price. It was tough in '08 but even this year it was up 10% with a dividend above 4%.

CI has bought a lot of the acquisition targets and have been successful in integrating them. They could one day become a take-over candidate. They are one of the few candidates that have growth through assets sales. Attractive management and assets. Yield doesn’t hurt. Stock is not cheap.