Look beyond banks in Finance sector

Article Excerpt

These four financial companies tend to be more volatile than Canada’s big-five banks. But they are all leaders in their niche fields, and offer strong growth prospects, particularly as the economy begins to recover. We feel that conservative investors should diversify their finance-sector holdings with Great-West Lifeco and IGM Financial. More aggressive investors should consider Home Capital Group. However, we still see Dundee Corp. as a worthwhile hold. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $25 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 944.3 million; Market cap: $23.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; SI Rating: Above Average) is Canada’s largest insurance company, with $441.9 billion of assets under administration. Great-West also provides retirement-planning and wealth-management services. It gets about 60% of its earnings from Canada, followed by Europe (25%) and the United States (15%). Power Financial Corp. (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 68.7% of Great-West’s shares. In August 2007, Great-West bought Putnam Investments Trust, a leading U.S. mutual-fund company. Great-West paid just $4.2 billion, even…