CI Financial announces share buyback amid 1% rise in Q2 earnings

As part of its second quarter earnings report, CI Financial announced a share buyback of up to $1 billion.

The wealth management firm reported net income of $159.9 million for Q2 2018, up 1% from $159 million in the previous quarter.

Earnings per share for Q2 were $0.61, up from $0.59 in Q1.

CI announced a new capital allocation strategy “that will allow CI to deploy its free cash flow to pursue the best available growth opportunities as market and industry conditions change,” said a release.

This strategy includes repurchasing up to $1 billion in shares over the new 12 to 18 months.

“CI has consistently returned substantially all its free cash flow to shareholders through a combination of share repurchases and dividends. This is not changing,” CEO Peter W. Anderson said in a note to shareholders.

Read: CI Financial reports AUM growth for July

CI also announced a new annual dividend rate of $0.72 per share as part of the strategy. The dividend will be paid quarterly for the next six quarters, the release said. The first quarterly dividend of $0.18 per share will be paid on Oct. 15.

CI also reported average assets under management of $139.5 billion for the second quarter, up 14% from the same quarter in 2017 but down 2% from $141.9 billion in Q1 of this year. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to strong market performance over the past 12 months and the acquisition of Sentry Investments Corp. last October, the release said.

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Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.