Top assets spur dividends

Article Excerpt

POWER CORP. $28.77 (Toronto symbol POW; Shares o/s: 414.4 million; Market cap: $12.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.6%; www.powercorporation.com) is a holding company with a diversified list of businesses. It holds its financial assets through its 65.6%-owned Power Financial. Power Financial’s assets include a 67.6% interest in insurer Great-West Lifeco and 61.5% of mutual-fund provider IGM Financial. Through its 50% stake in Parjointco, Power Financial also holds 55.5% of Swiss-listed Pargesa Holdings SA. Pargesa has 95% of its assets in seven large European firms. In the three months ended March 31, 2019, Power Corp.’s earnings per share dropped 44.2%, to $0.63 from $1.13. Power Financial’s per-share earnings fell 8.5%, mainly due to weaker results at Great-West Lifeco. Adding to that were losses on investments at Power Corp.’s Sagard Capital business, compared to big gains a year earlier. Meanwhile, Power Corp. just raised its dividend by 6.0%. It now yields a high 5.6%. Power Corp. is a buy. buy…