On February 13, 2025, we hosted a live Canadian bank webcast with Rob Wessel, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Hamilton ETFs and one of Canada’s leading experts in the financial services sector. Rob provided his insights into how investors can navigate one of the most challenging stock picking environments for the Canadian banks in over 30 years reviewed how highly material and idiosyncratic valuation issues affecting…
Commentary: HUM
Positive Outlook for U.S. Banks in 2025
The U.S. reporting season for the financial sector has kicked off, and the initial results for Q4 and guidance for 2025 have been largely positive. This optimism is reflected across both large-cap and small/mid-cap (“SMID-cap”) banks, indicating a robust financial landscape ahead, which would be beneficial for the Hamilton U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (HUM)
Hamilton ETFs Confirms 2024 Annual Non-Cash Distributions
TORONTO, December 30, 2024 – Hamilton Capital Partners Inc. (“Hamilton ETFs”) confirmed today the annual non-cash distributions (“Non-Cash Distributions”) for its suite of ETFs, all of with trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, for the year ended December 31, 2024. Please note, this is an update to the estimated Non-Cash Distributions previously announced on December 20, 2024. ETFs are required to distribute any net income…
U.S. Mid-Cap Financials — HUM Outperforms with Considerable Recovery Upside Remaining
The U.S. financials have been showing strong momentum this year outperforming the S&P 500[1], fueled by increased economic optimism and investor sentiment. The Hamilton U.S. Mid-Cap Financials ETF (HUM) has been the top performing U.S. financials/ banks ETFs in Canada since inception (see below). That said, following earnings season, the large-cap financials, which typically set the tone for the rest of the sector, are leading the…
Replay: Market Outlook with Ed Yardeni — Roaring 20s Still Ahead?
On April 2nd, 2024, we hosted a webcast with prominent Wall Street strategist, Ed Yardeni, where he provided his thoughts on U.S. equity markets, how the 2020s might be another ‘Roaring 20s, and what could cloud this optimistic outlook. Ed has been one of themost influential Wall Street strategists over the last 30 years and is regularly on CNBC and Bloomberg TV. For more…
U.S. Financials: Mid-Caps Look Attractive, Despite Clouds (4 Reasons to Invest)
The U.S. mid-cap financials held up very well in 2022, in what was a very difficult year for the global financials. Risks that had not been seen for decades – like inflation – have returned, and the market’s fears that rising central bank rates could trigger a recession remain high. This has resulted in significant compression in price-to-earnings multiples as the market anticipates clouds ahead. Yet,…
HUM – Top Performing U.S. Financials ETF – Again
Our Hamilton U.S. Small/Mid-Cap Financials ETF (HUM, HUM.U) was the top performing U.S. financials ETF in Canada – again[1]. HUM has now outperformed its competitor ETFs over the following periods: since inception[2], in the last two years, full year 2021, and full year 2022. In 2021, it was the top performing financials ETF in Canada – foreign or domestic[3]. In the last two years – which…
Canadian Banks: TD Buys FHN – A Very Strong Fit
After much speculation in recent years about its appetite for additional U.S. bank M&A, TD offered ~US$13.4 bln in cash to buy First Horizon Corporation (FHN)[1], a Tennessee-based regional bank, in late February, almost 15 years since its last “large” U.S. bank acquisition – Commerce Bancorp. In our view, the acquisition offers many strategic benefits given FHN: (i) is an optimal size, adding material scale with…
Canadian Banks: BMO’s High Risk, High(er) Reward Acquisition of BoW
Bank of Montreal recently announced the acquisition of BNP Paribas’ U.S. retail banking subsidiary, Bank of the West (BoW) for ~C$20 bln – the largest acquisition in Canadian banking history. The transaction is very different from prior acquisitions made by the Canadian banks and is further complicated by the fact that BoW is not publicly traded (wholly owned by BNP), so most Canadian investors have limited…
U.S. Banks: M&A Features Prominently on Q1 Calls
[All values in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted] As we noted in last week’s Insight, U.S. Financials: Why They Remain Attractive (Especially the Mid-Caps), the Q4 2020 pick-up in U.S. bank M&A – a clear sign of management’s conviction that the economic recovery was well underway – has gained momentum in 2021, including several transactions involving Hamilton U.S. Mid/Small-Cap Financials ETF (tickers: HUM, HUM-U) and Hamilton…
U.S. Financials: Why They Remain Attractive (Especially the Mid-Caps)
[All values in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted] One year on from the market depths of the pandemic, it is worth a quick review of how far the U.S. financials have come. Notwithstanding the fact Ontario recently entered another province-wide lockdown, things south of the border look far brighter, especially for the holdings in the Hamilton U.S. Mid/Small-Cap Financials ETF (tickers: HUM, HUM-U) and much of…
U.S. Banks: The Return of M&A – A Clear Sign of Bankers’ Conviction in the Recovery
All values in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. As the year draws to a close, the whipsaw nature of 2020 will not soon be forgotten. When the pandemic struck earlier this year and businesses shuttered under direct orders by various governments, how long and how deep the resulting global economic downturn would be was next to impossible to forecast with any sense of accuracy. As businesses…