Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, May 5, 2017

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC., $34.47, Toronto symbol GWO, is Canada’s second-largest insurance company, after Manulife Financial (Toronto symbol MFC). It also offers mutual funds, retirement planning and wealth management services. With the March 2017 payment, the insurer raised its quarterly dividend by 6%, to $0.367 per share from $0.346. The new annual rate of $1.47 yields a high 4.3%. Great-West has announced a new cost-cutting plan at its Canadian operations. The company will shrink its workforce by 13% over the next two years and sell some real estate. It also aims to sell more of its products online. Great-West expects severance payments and other costs will reduce its earnings in the second quarter of 2017 by $127 million, or $0.13 a share. To put that cost in context, it earned $2.6 billion, or $2.67 a share, in 2016. However, the company expects the plan will cut $200 million from its annual expenses, starting in 2019. Great-West’s dividend has grown an average of 3.6% annually over the…