Power Financial Corp (PWF.TO)

4.8% Series F preferred shares. Safe to continue to hold? From a long-term approach, he does like the company. One of the highest preferred share issuers out there. There are a lot of interest-rate risks with this one, so there could be more price weakness. You have to look at this in context with everything else you hold.

Great West Life (GWO-T) or Power Financial (PWF-T)? Power Financial owns Great West Life, so you get both if you own this one. They have both had pretty nice moves and they have equivalent yields. This one gives you a little more than just the lifecos if you wanted that. They trade in a band, so you could choose either one.

Sold his Great West Life (GWO-T) in order to buy this. Trading at a 14% discount to its NAV. Has only traded at this big discount 3 times in the 15 years. He thinks it will go back to the average discount which would be 7%-8%. This, plus a 30 basis point pickup in yield and a 5%-6% pickup against Great West, he expects to be 6% better off. Yield of 4.07%. Expects dividend increases to resume and be steady over the next few years.

Inexpensive. Prospects for the market have improved, which has improved the valuation of financial services companies, particularly asset management companies.

Preferred ‘H’. Quality of common is fine but the preferreds will be hurt by interest rate trends.

He would be looking at this in the financial space. Great yield and probably will continue to be increased over the years. Likes it here and would look at it if he was adding to the financial space.

Preferred S series? Really likes this issue. This is a perpetual, so it is a longer-term and goes to 2022 and is payable at $25. There is a redemption before that at $26, which would start winding down to $25 in 2022. Pretty good dividend of around 4.8%. Trading way down around the $20-$21 mark, so the current running yield on it is about 5.5%.

Owns a good position in Great West Life (GWO-T) and a big mutual fund company. If the markets are able to keep on growing under lots of QE stimulus, he thinks the mutual fund companies will tend to do well. Nice diversified portfolio and a nice 4.3% yield. Could move 15%-20%.

A smorgasbord of financials. This is one place where you can diversify a little bit. Well managed. Pays a pretty reasonable dividend and have been good about increasing this. Good multiples. Good cash flow and long-term growth.

Owns Great West Life (GWO-T) and Asset Management. Both of these continue to benefit from rising bond yields. This trend will probably continue and will probably continue to have capital appreciation from a low PE name. Dividend is good. Payout ratio is above 53% and expected to fall to 46% in 2014. Wouldn’t be surprised to see a dividend growth at their next annual review.

A transparent company. Has done well lately but outlook for insurance is much improved. Prefers to parent company.

(A Top Pick June 8/12. Up 38.07%.) This was an easy pick. A quality company. There are no problems about the dividend. Good diversification.

Power Financial (PWF-T) versus Power Corp (POW-T)? He would probably choose Power Financial because it holds more things. Non-bank financials have been doing extremely well. Charts tend to be the same. Yield of 4.3%.

Fairly safe, blue-chip, Canadian financial and diversified across a couple of financial services segments. However, there are other choices and he would be more interested in a well diversified Canadian bank such as Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-T) or Toronto Dominion (TD-T).

A stable, lower risk play in this environment. If interest rates are going higher, insurance (Great West Life) and asset management are good places to be. Great West just made an accretive acquisition of Irish Life. Payout ratio is very low. Dividend yield of 4.57%.