Great-West’s purchases raise profit and risk

Article Excerpt

GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $28 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 988.4 million; Market cap: $27.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 5.6%; 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. Power Financial Corp. (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.7% of the company. In the past few years, Great-West has used acquisitions to expand, particularly in Ireland. Recent purchases in that country include Aviva Health and the 51% of GloHealth that Great-West didn’t already own. The company also recently paid an undisclosed amount for a controlling stake in the Irish operations of Invesco Ltd. (New York symbol IVZ). That business manages the pension plans of 275 of Ireland’s large corporations and over 500 of its smaller companies. If you exclude costs to integrate those new operations, Great-West’s overall earnings rose 28.0% in the quarter ended September 30, 2018, to $745 million. A year earlier, the company earned…