great-west lifeco

GREAT-WEST LIFECO $34.92 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 996.7 million; Market cap: $35.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 3.7%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) has reported strong results in its latest quarter and raised its dividend. Great-West is Canada’s largest insurance company. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management. Power Financial owns 67.0% of Great-West. The company’s earnings per share jumped 34.7% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to $0.66 from $0.49 a year earlier. Revenue rose 33.1%, to $10.7 billion from $8.1 billion....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO $34.92 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 996.7 million; Market cap: $35.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 3.7%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) has reported strong results in its latest quarter and raised its dividend.

Great-West is Canada’s largest insurance company. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management. Power Financial owns 67.0% of Great-West.

The company’s earnings per share jumped 34.7% in the three months ended December 31, 2014, to $0.66 from $0.49 a year earlier. Revenue rose 33.1%, to $10.7 billion from $8.1 billion.

...

BOMBARDIER INC., Toronto symbols BBD.A $2.69 and BBD.B $2.58, fell 12% this week after announcing several moves to improve its struggling aerospace division. It will also suspend its dividend and issue new shares and debt to shore up its balance sheet. As part of the plan, Bombardier’s chief executive officer, Pierre Beaudoin, will step down and become executive chairman. Alain Bellemare, the former CEO of United Technologies, will take over as CEO. (United Technologies is a recommendation of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks.) Bombardier now says its new CSeries passenger jet will cost $5.4 billion to develop, up from its earlier forecast of $4.4 billion (all amounts except share prices in U.S. dollars). After several setbacks, it expects to begin deliveries by the end of 2015....

POWER CORP. $31.38 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares outstanding: 412.6 million; Market cap: $15.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Divd. yield: 3.7%; www.powercorporation.com) is a diversified holding company. It holds its financial assets through 65.7%-owned Power Financial. These financial assets include 68.1% of Great- West Lifeco, one of Canada’s largest life insurers, and 58.7% of IGM Financial, a leading Canadian mutual fund provider. Power Financial also owns 50% of holding company Parjointco, which holds 55.5% of Switzerland- listed Pargesa Holdings SA. Pargesa has 95% of its assets in five large European companies: Imerys (minerals), Total SA (oil), Pernod Ricard (wine and spirits), SGS (inspection, testing and certification services) and Lafarge (cement and building materials). Power Corp. also has investments in Asia....

POWER CORP. $31.38 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares outstanding: 412.6 million; Market cap: $15.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Divd. yield: 3.7%; www.powercorporation.com) is a diversified holding company. It holds its financial assets through 65.7%-owned Power Financial.

These financial assets include 68.1% of Great- West Lifeco, one of Canada’s largest life insurers, and 58.7% of IGM Financial, a leading Canadian mutual fund provider.

Power Financial also owns 50% of holding company Parjointco, which holds 55.5% of Switzerland- listed Pargesa Holdings SA. Pargesa has 95% of its assets in five large European companies: Imerys (minerals), Total SA (oil), Pernod Ricard (wine and spirits), SGS (inspection, testing and certification services) and Lafarge (cement and building materials). Power Corp. also has investments in Asia.

...

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $33 (www.greatwestlifeco.com) earned $687 million, or $0.69 a share, in the three months ended September 30, 2014, up 31.4% from $523 million, or $0.52 a share, a year earlier....

We still think investors will profit most—and with the least risk—by buying shares of well-established, dividend-paying stocks with strong business prospects.

These are companies that have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in a changing marketplace.

Stocks like these give investors an additional measure of safety in today’s volatile markets. And the best ones offer an attractive combination of moderate p/e’s (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings), steady or rising dividend yields (annual dividend divided by the share price) and promising growth prospects.

Here are 20 stocks we think meet those criteria:

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

...

Industrial Alliance Insurance & Financial Services, $42.51, symbol IAG on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 100.1 million; Market cap: $4.3 billion; www.inalco.com), offers a range of financial products, including life and health insurance, savings and retirement plans, RRSPs, mutual and segregated funds, mortgage loans and auto and home insurance. In the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Industrial’s earnings jumped 52.7%, to $1.13 a share from $0.74. That was due to rising stock markets, a benefit from its hedging program, tax gains and lower life insurance payouts, offset by a loss in group insurance benefits. The company’s outlook remains positive. It is also raising prices in its group insurance area, although most of the benefit won’t come until renewals take place next year....

We continue to recommend that all investors aim to own two or more of Canada’s big five banks, including Bank of Nova Scotia, our #1 safety-conscious pick for 2014. But we also feel that conservative investors should diversify their Finance-sector holdings with stocks like Great-West Lifeco. GREAT-WEST LIFECO $31.90 (Toronto symbol GWO; Shares outstanding: 998.9 million; Market cap: $32.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 3.9%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s largest insurance company. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management. Power Financial owns 67.0% of Great-West. Great-West’s earnings per share rose 12.7% in the three months ended June 30, 2014, to $0.62 from $0.55 a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with $804.6 billion of assets under administration....

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $33 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 998.8 million; Market cap: $33.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) has paid an undisclosed amount for J.P. Morgan Chase’s (New York symbol JPM) pension plan recordkeeping operations.

The deal lets Great-West earn steady fees from these pension funds, and gives it an opportunity to profit from the performance of their investments.

Great-West is a buy.

...