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…
Hamilton ETFs
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…
Election, RBA and Regulators Provide Good News for Australian Financials
The Hamilton Capital Australian Financials Yield ETF (HFA) was launched in December 2018, with a targeted yield of 6.5% or higher, paid monthly (aided by covered calls). The Australian financials have a history of long-term outperformance versus the Canadian financials with lower volatility (including during the global financial crisis). Note to Reader: This Insight includes references to certain Hamilton ETFs that were active at the time of writing.…
Global Banks Still Thriving; HBG Posts Robust 12% EPS Growth Y/Y
In Q1 2019, the holdings in the Hamilton Capital Global Bank ETF (ticker: HBG) recorded portfolio-weighted EPS growth of a robust 12% Y/Y[1], supported by excellent fundamentals of U.S. banks (~60% weight) and a diversified portfolio of global banks (~40% weight). Encouragingly, the growth was strong and broad-based across nearly all regions, including U.S., India, Singapore, Norway and Austria. With global growth forecast to remain over…
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…
Hamilton Capital Announces Q2 2019 Monthly Distributions for HCB, HFA
TORONTO, April 23, 2019 – Hamilton Capital Partners Inc. (“Hamilton Capital”) is pleased to announce the monthly cash distributions for its Hamilton Capital Canadian Bank Variable-Weight ETF (ticker “HCB”) and Hamilton Capital Australian Financials Yield ETF (ticker “HFA”), both of which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, for the second quarter of 2019. The ex-dividend date for each month’s distribution is indicated in the table below…
Canadian Banks: Why Volatility Will Likely Rise (and a Comment on Mean Reversion)
In October 2018, we launched the Hamilton Capital Canadian Bank Variable-Weight ETF (ticker: HCB), which seeks to benefit from the historical mean reversion tendencies of the Big-6 banks, especially in times of greater market volatility. At the end of each month, the three most oversold banks are rebalanced to represent ~80% of HCB, while the three most overbought banks are rebalanced to 20%. HCB’s objective is…
Cdn/Aust’n Banks: Why the Big Housing Short is So Difficult (and the Risk of a “Direct Hit” Remains Low)
In Q4 2018, we expanded our ETF offering to include two ETFs with monthly distributions and exposure to two world-class – and very similar – financial sectors with excellent performance histories. In October, we launched the Hamilton Capital Canadian Bank Variable-Weight ETF (HCB), a rules-based strategy that seeks to capitalize on the historical mean reversion tendencies of the Canadian banking sector[1]. In December, we launched the…
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…
Hamilton Capital Announces March 2019 Distributions
TORONTO, March 22, 2019 – Hamilton Capital Partners Inc. (“Hamilton Capital”) is pleased to announce the cash distributions for its suite of financial services ETFs, all of which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, for the period end March 31, 2019. The ex-dividend date for these distributions is anticipated to be March 28, 2019, for all unitholders of record on March 29, 2019. The distributions will…
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…
Notes from New York: Cards, Payments and Financial Technology Meetings
We met the management teams of over a dozen payments, cards, exchanges and other related companies in the rapidly growing financial technology sector[1] in New York. The financial technology sector (“Fin-Tech”) is expected to continue to benefit from multiple structural tailwinds including the growth of e-commerce and growing technology adoption. However, high competitive intensity, rapidly evolving consumer preferences and a wide variety of business models (including…