Updating Great-West Lifeco Inc. and Finning International Inc.

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $35 (www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC). It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management services in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.6% of Great-West. In August 2007, Great-West acquired U.S. mutual fund manager Putnam Investments. That business has suffered lately as investors pull their money out of Putnam’s funds to put in to cheaper exchange-traded funds. Those ETFs are increasingly popular. In response, the company now plans to cut 8% of Putnam’s workforce. Hold. FINNING INTERNATIONAL INC. $27 (www.finning.com) sells and services Caterpillar-brand heavy equipment in Canada, South America and the U.K. Its main customers are in the oil, mining, forest-products and construction industries. In the third quarter of 2016, Finning’s revenue fell 12.1%, to $1.3 billion from $1.5 billion a year earlier. That’s because lower commodity prices have hurt demand for new and used equipment. Earnings per share declined 25.3%, to $0.22…