Updating your Conservative-Growth Payers: Power Corp.

Article Excerpt

POWER CORP. $34 is a buy. The conglomerate (Toronto symbol POW; Conservative-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 616.2 million; Market cap: $21.0 billion; Dividend yield: 5.8%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.powercorporation.com) is a holding company with a diversified list of businesses. Its primary investments are controlling stakes in Great-West Lifeco, IGM Financial, Swiss-listed Pargesa, and 42.5% of privately-held robo-advisor Wealthsimple. The company raised its quarterly dividend by 10.6% with the February 2022 payment, to $0.495 a share from $0.4475. The new annual rate of $1.98 yields a high 5.8%. Power also paid investors a special dividend of $0.0475 a share in February 2022. In the first quarter of 2022, Power’s Wealthsimple subsidiary sold both its U.S. and U.K. businesses to focus on services in Canada, including investing, banking and cryptocurrencies. It will also pull back on its investments in peer-to-peer payments, tax filing and merchant services. Meantime, Power’s revenue in the first quarter of 2022 fell 18.0%, to $10.0 billion from $12.2 billion a..