Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, April 14, 2023

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC., $37.28, Toronto symbol GWO, remains a hold. The company is Canada’s second-largest life insurer, after Manulife Financial. Power Corp. (Toronto symbol POW) owns 68.2% of the firm. With the March 2023 payment, Great-West raised your quarterly dividend by 6.1%. Investors now receive $0.52 a share instead of $0.49. The new annual rate of $2.08 yields a high 5.6%. Great-West has completed several acquisitions in the past few months as part of a plan to diversify its operations. Its latest acquisition, through its Canada Life unit, is Investment Planning Counsel Inc. (IPC), which it is buying from IGM Financial (see below). IPC provides a variety of wealth management and planning services through 650 financial advisors. The acquisition will make Canada Life one of the largest non-bank wealth providers in Canada, with over 4,000 advisors and more than $85 billion in assets under administration. Great-West will pay $575 million for IPC. To put that amount in context, it earned $892 million, or $0.96 a share, in…