Great West Lifeco (GWO.TO)

Both companies have done quite well and both are cheap with secure dividends. It has been a good year for the sector but they may not get the same returns going forward.

Revenues from asset management, insurance, annuities, health benefits. Very diversified. Around for decades. Likes the safety and growth over time. Dividend growth is about 8%. Payout ratio still in 50-70% range. High quality. Not necessarily a home run, but a single: core holding for the long term, dividend payments, some price appreciation. Yield is 4.6%.

Because it's diversified, interest rate moves benefit different segments at different times.

Great company, high quality. More focused on investments than some of the other insurance companies. Hitting new highs.

For income-oriented investors. Mature market focus in Canada, US, and mature parts of Europe; whereas MFC and SLF are pursuing growth more in EMs. Better on capital allocation, likes growth potential. Trades at less than 10x earnings. Attractive yield of 5.2%.

Likes it, screens well. Decent price to book ratio, attractive relative to other names today. Shares have come down with the correction, mainly due to interest rates popping up a bit. Affected by interest rates. Quality, good management. Yield is 5.4%, strong.

On a total return basis including dividends, the return in positive; without the dividend, it looks negative. So you have to hold this a long time to ride out the fluctuations as you collect the dividends.

Earnings were underwhelming. A more expensive stock in the insurance space. Insurance companies are set up to continue to outperform the banks. Everyone's looking for yield. Look to MFC as #1 in the space.

His best guess is that GWO might be the best performer of the 3. Not particularly liquid, but shouldn't be an issue for the retail investor. Insurance companies tend to do well in a rising rate environment, because it tends to discount their liabilities to a degree.

A strong company for a long time. He'd stick with it.

It has done extremely well and has good client retention.

Decent valuation at 6.5x PE, very good yield of about 5.17%. Dividend yield remains stable and sustainable, growing about 3-4%. Higher interest rates are benefitting. Low beta, about 90% of the TSX. 

His preference is for quality. He likes POW, which owns GWO, for dividend growth and share buybacks. AGF.B might have higher return potential because it's smaller with more volatility, but POW will give him a higher Sharpe ratio over the long term because it's not as volatile. 

Prefers the banks to the lifecos, of which he owns none. Lifecos have been sluggish growers. It yields 6%, but share appreciation is better among banks. Other lifecos have overseas operations and therefore more growth.

Done well, 52-week high today. Nice yield of 5.15%. Growth probably mid-high single digits. Somewhat diversified. Prefers MFC, as it's cheaper on price to book and is more diversified, plus Asian exposure gives it more growth potential. Insurers usually do well in this type of environment. Nothing wrong with it.

Great company that is well run.
Does not own shares - instead owns parent company - Power Corporation of Canada.
Only provides exposure to insurance industry.
Safe bet for the long term otherwise.