The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday, July 25, edition that Scotia Capital analyst Phil Hardie has reaffirmed his "sector outperform" ranking for Intact Financial. The Globe's David Leeder writes that Mr. Hardie cut his share target by $15 to $210. Analysts on average target the shares at $218.60. Mr. Hardie says in a note: "Intact remains our 'Go-To' defensive quality name that we believe is attractive for large-cap investors looking for a high-quality name to reduce portfolio beta and trades at a reasonable valuation. Intact is Canada's largest P&C insurer, with a successful long-term track record of exceeding industry ROE by 500 basis points, that is also a resilient, defensive-oriented leading financial services company with a strong management team and mid- to long-term growth prospects. The pillars of its strategic road map for growth include expanding leadership in Canada, building a specialty solutions leader, and strengthening leading positions in the United Kingdom and Ireland. ... M&A also likely provides an embedded catalyst. Given its current levels of excess capital and progress with the RSA integration, we believe deal activity is imminent over the next 12 to 24 months."