Two top financial stocks: 1 buy & 1 hold

Article Excerpt

We continue to like the long-term outlook for these two important members of the Power Financial family. For new buying, we prefer IGM over Great-West. GREAT-WEST LIFECO INC. $35 (Toronto symbol GWO; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Fi nance sector; shares outstanding: 989.9 million; Market cap: $34.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 4.2%; 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 (Toronto symbol PWF) owns 67.6% of the company. Great-West has announced a new cost-cutting plan for its Canadian operations. The strategy includes shrinking its workforce by 13% over the next two years and selling some real estate. It also aims to offer more of its products online. The insurer expects severance payments and other costs to reduce its 2017 second quarter earnings by $127 million, or $0.13 a share. However, the plan will cut $200 million from Great-West’s annual expenses, starting in 2019. To put those…