These Finance stocks take you beyond banks

Article Excerpt

We continue to recommend investors diversify their Finance holdings beyond Canada’s Big Five banks to other high-quality stocks. That includes the three we analyze below. Each of these firms is a leader in its niche market, which helps to cut risk. Even so, we see one in particular as a good choice for your new buying right now. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $29 is a hold. The company (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Finance sector; shares outstanding: 927.7 million; Market cap: $26.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 6.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.greatwestlifeco.com) is Canada’s second-largest life insurer, after Manulife Financial. It also offers mutual funds and wealth management services. Power Corp. (Toronto symbol POW) owns 66.9% of the firm. The company has announced several acquisitions in the past few months. Those include a deal by its Empower Retirement subsidiary in the U.S. to buy the retirement services business of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company for $4.4 billion. The MassMutual retirement services…