Great-West takes on risk

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO $28.10 (Toronto symbol GWO; shares o/s: 988.4 million; Market cap: $27.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.5%; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management services. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.7% of the company. In the past few years, Great-West has used acquisitions to expand, particularly in Ireland. If you exclude costs to integrate those new operations, earnings rose 28.0% in the quarter ended September 30, 2018, to $745 million, or $0.75 a share. A year earlier, the company earned $582 million, or $0.59. Revenue rose 17.7%, to $12.0 billion from $10.2 billion. Acquisitions are always uncertain and often take longer to pay off than expected. That adds a lot of risk. Great-West Lifeco is still a hold. hold…