Acquisitions pay off for leading insurers

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $42.21 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.7 million; Market cap: $25.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.8%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. The company has $861.5 billion of assets under management and… Read More

MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $18.04

MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $18.04 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $35.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other related forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services.

In the three months ended December… Read More

These insurers grow in global markets

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $41.71 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.3 million; Market cap: $25.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. The company has $891.3 billion of assets under management and… Read More

Our five top ETF picks for 2016

We feel that investors will profit the most by holding a well-balanced portfolio of high-quality stocks. However, if you don’t want to build a portfolio, or you want to supplement your individual stock holdings, then ETFs can provide a great alternative.

The main factors we… Read More

Hi. Any advice re: Data Group Income Fund? I believe that it paid a generous dividend all through the recent recession. Your thoughts? Thanks.

The Data Group Income Fund, $7.27, symbol DGI.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 23.5 million; Market cap: $170.8 million), sells commercial-printing and related services to a wide variety of customers, including Canada Post, Bell Canada, Manulife Financial Corp., Bank of Montreal, Imperial Oil, Ontario Lottery and… Read More

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $23 -Toronto symbol GWO

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $23 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 944 million; Market cap: $21.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; SI Rating: Above Average) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company after Manulife Financial Corp. (Toronto symbol MFC). The company also offers wealth-management services… Read More

We see further gains ahead for these two

Great-West and IGM have recovered nicely from their March lows. Despite this, both remain cheap in relation to their earnings. They also stand to expand their leading market shares as weaker competitors fold. This should let them continue paying above-average dividends.

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $23 (Toronto… Read More