We had the opportunity to meet the management of over a dozen global exchanges, e-brokers and fin-tech firms at a recent conference in New York. Global exchanges and e-brokers have benefitted from multiple secular, regulatory and cyclical tailwinds in recent years, which have resulted in strong growth trajectory and robust stock returns. The Hamilton Capital Global Financials Yield ETF (HFY) [1] has ~4% exposure to exchanges and e-brokers,…
Insights: United States
Insights from Nashville: Titans of Growth
We recently travelled to Nashville to meet with a small group of Tennessee-based banks, all of which operate in the state capital, and half of which are holdings in the Hamilton Capital Global Bank ETF (ticker: HBG) and the Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (USD) (ticker: HFMU.U). We also had an opportunity to speak with the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. It was a great…
U.S. Banks: The Sun’s still shining on Mid-Caps
New York City in May means a lot of traffic, but also beautiful weather and a chance to catch up with a collection of mid-cap banks from across the U.S. in one trip. In all, we sat down with 8 executive teams, primarily from banks operating in the U.S. Sunbelt (i.e., from California to Florida), including 7 owned by the Hamilton Capital U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF…
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…
Insights 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…
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 Chicago: Opinions on the Canadian Banks (part 1)
We recently met with the top management of four Chicago-headquartered U.S. mid-cap banks (see related October 9, 2018 “Notes from Chicago – Three Takeaways from the Windy City (Part 2)”). Given their large presence in this giant MSA, it was not surprising that the Canadian banks and their speculated U.S. expansion plans were a frequent discussion topic. Chicago is the single most important market to Canadian…
Notes from Chicago: 3 Takeaways from the Windy City (part 2)
We recently met the top management of four U.S. mid-cap banks headquartered in Chicago (see related October 10, 2018 “Notes from Chicago – What the Banks Said About the Canadian Banks/M&A (Part 1)”). Chicago is the third largest U.S. MSAwith real GDP of US$583 billion and a population of 9.6 million. Although large, the Chicago MSA has one of the least favourable demographic profiles among the “large…