Acquisitions add risk for GWO

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $37 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; s/o: 986.4 million; Market cap: $36.5 billion; p/s ratio: 1.9; Divd. Yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management services. Power Financial (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.6% of the company. In August 2007, Great-West acquired U.S. mutual fund manager Putnam Investments. That business has suffered lately as investors pull their money out of its funds to put in to cheaper exchange-traded funds. Those ETFs are increasingly popular. In response, the company now plans to cut 8% of Putnam’s workforce. That should reduce its annual expenses by $65 million U.S. If you exclude severance costs and other unusual items, Great-West earned $696 million in the three months ended December 31, 2016. That’s up 1.8% from $683 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share gained 2.6%, to $0.71 from…