Updating Great-West Lifeco Inc., Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc.

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $34 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 988.6 million; Market cap: $33.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management services. In April 2017, the insurer announced a plan to restructure its Canadian operations. That strategy includes shrinking its workforce by 13% over the next two years and selling some real estate. Excluding costs related to the restructuring and other unusual items, the company earned $731 million in the first quarter of 2018. That’s up 18.1% from $619 million a year earlier. Due to more shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 17.5%, to $0.74 from $0.63. The latest quarter included a $1.5 billion drop in the value of Great-West’s investment portfolio. As a result, revenue fell 24.9%, to $9.7 billion from $12.9 billion. The year-earlier quarter also reflects a gain of $735 million over the same…