These two stocks tap retiring boomers: Great-West Lifeco and IGM Financial

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Both Great-West and IGM stand to gain as more baby boomers retire in the next few years. However, we continue to prefer IGM for your new buying. That’s because Great-West is more vulnerable to potentially higher interest rates, which would hurt the value of its bond portfolio. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $33 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 927.7 million; Market cap: $30.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 5.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest life insurer, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management services. Power Corp. (Toronto symbol POW) owns 66.9% of the firm. The company’s Empower Retirement unit has now completed its $4.4 billion purchase of the retirement services business of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company. Empower oversees more than 12 million individual retirement plans. That translates into management of $884 billion U.S. in assets from 67,000 workplaces. Due to recent acquisitions and a gain from its investment…