Commentary: HUM

U.S. Bank M&A: 8 Drivers as Described by Industry Giant, Rodgin Cohen

As financial industry specialists and readers of “Too Big to Fail” will know, Rodgin Cohen, a longtime corporate lawyer with Sullivan & Cromwell, is one of the preeminent authorities on banking and financial services M&A in the United States. So, a chance to hear his thoughts on the state of the current M&A environment, as it relates to U.S. banking, was not to be missed. The…

HFMU.U Posts Robust 13% EPS Growth Y/Y; 500 bps Ahead of U.S. Large-Cap Financials

In Q1 2019, the holdings in the Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (USD) (ticker: HFMU.U) recorded year-over-year portfolio-weighted EPS growth of a strong 13%[1], or ~500 bps ahead of the large-caps at 8%[2].  This strong performance was supported by excellent fundamentals including stable margins, steady volume growth and a benign credit environment. Note to Reader: This Insight includes references to certain Hamilton ETFs that were…

Notes from Atlanta: (Growth, M&A) Going Strong

In the almost two years since our last trip to Atlanta, a lot has changed in the banking sector (M&A) and a lot has not (strong growth). The opportunity to speak with 8 banks operating in and around Atlanta – several of which are holdings in the Hamilton Capital Global Bank ETF (HBG) and the Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (USD) (HFMU.U) – provided some…

U.S. Banks: Mid-Caps vs. JPM, BAC, C & WFC – Higher EPS Growth at Deeper Valuation Discounts

At present, the actively-managed Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (USD) (ticker, HFMU.U), represents superior value versus a portfolio of the largest U.S. banks, namely Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo. As the chart below highlights, the portfolio-weighted price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio for HFMU.U is now at a 2.5x discount to its 5 year average, which is meaningfully larger than the 0.9x discount of the four…

HFMU.U Posts 32% EPS Growth Y/Y; 13% Ahead of U.S. Large-Cap Financials

In Q4 2018, the holdings in the Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (USD) (ticker: HFMU.U) recorded year-over-year portfolio-weighted EPS growth of a robust 32%[1], supported by excellent fundamentals including rising margins,  solid volume growth and the reduction in the U.S. corporate tax reduction (which added roughly ~18% to this growth rate). As we explained in our insight “U.S. Bank M&A: Implications from the Largest Deal…

Canadian Banks: Five Takeaways from BBT/STI, Accelerating U.S. Bank M&A

Last week, in our insight “U.S. Bank M&A: Implications of the Largest Deal in a Decade”, we explained why we expect U.S. bank consolidation will accelerate following the BB&T/SunTrust merger, and reasons why such activity will predominately be within the small and mid-cap banks. In this insight, we offer five takeaways for the Canadian banks – BMO, CM, RY, and TD – and their U.S. expansion…

U.S. Bank M&A: Implications from the Largest Deal in a Decade

On Thursday morning, BB&T (BBT) and SunTrust (STI), two of the largest banks in the U.S. Southeast, announced a merger of equals (“MOE”). With an aggregate deal value approaching US$66 billion, the transaction marks the largest bank M&A deal since the 2008 financial crisis and will create the 6th largest bank in the United States. In this update we provide our thoughts including the main takeaways…

U.S. Financials | Analysts vs. the Markets (as Fundamentals/Stock Prices Diverge)

This has been a tough month for the financials, particularly banks. What made this correction unusual is that throughout October, the financials continued to post very high earnings growth, and with minimal downgrades in estimates/target prices, the ingredients for a sharp sell-off were largely absent. Of the 270 financial services stocks covered by the U.S. broker-dealer, Sandler O’Neill + Partners (SOP), over 70% met or beat…

U.S. Financials | Mid-Caps Longer-Term Outperformance in One Chart

Given the media attention given to the U. S. large-cap financials (e.g., JPM, MetLife, AIG), Canadian investors can’t be faulted for sometimes neglecting to diversify into the very large and varied mid-cap financial sector south of the border. That said, in our view, investors should not overlook this important sub-sector given its long-term history of material outperformance relative to its better known large-cap peers, as evidenced…

Notes from Texas: Lone Star Shines Bright

On a recent investor roadshow to Texas, we had the opportunity to meet the top management of ten Texas headquartered U.S. banks. The Texas economy is booming (annualized real GDP grew +5.2% yoy in Q4/17 making it the fastest growing economy of all 50 U.S. states) driven by a robust recovery in the energy sector and strong labor market trends in an increasingly diversified economy. With…

U.S. Banks: 3 Deals in 3 Weeks. Will M&A Accelerate Post-Dodd-Frank?

Hamilton Capital ETFs continue to benefit from material outperformance and substantial AUM growth. In this note, we discuss U.S. bank M&A and ask the question: will successful passage of the Dodd-Frank rollback bill result in an acceleration of sector consolidation? Last week, on May 24th, the President signed a bipartisan bill rolling back key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act (named “Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act”).

U.S. Banks: Mega-Caps’ Q4 Results in 4 Charts

With reporting season now over, we thought we would offer some key takeaways for the four U.S. mega-cap banks (JPM, C, BAC, WFC). Given that these four firms account for over 33% of the U.S. financials index (S5FINL Index), they have a significant/disproportionate impact on the overall sector’s results and are therefore worth following. In this note, we show operating earnings trends for each bank. As…

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