Canadian insurance stocks: life vs P&C valuation, dividends, catastrophe losses and analyst targets

Eight liquid Canadian insurance names — Manulife, Great-West Lifeco, Sun Life, Power Corporation, Fairfax, Intact, iA Financial and Definity — add up to about CA$431.5 billion of listed market value on the October 25, 2026 screener. Over the past year the peer median is up about 29%, ahead of the S&P/TSX Composite’s approximate +18% one-year price return. The last month was quieter: the peer median slipped about 0.4% while the Composite was roughly up. Setup for this living note: a strong year for the lifecos, a soft year for the big P&C names, and a November reporting window that starts with a catastrophe estimate already on the table.

Power Corp’s market value sits on top of its stake in Great-West, so that CA$431.5 billion figure double-counts the overlap. It is the sum of these listed stocks, not a sum of separate insurance franchises.

Canadian insurer snapshot: market cap, P/E, yield and returns vs the TSX

Metric	Peer set (8)	vs TSX (approx.)
Combined market cap	~CA$454.5B	—
Median trailing P/E	17.6x	—
Median forward P/E	13.6x	—
Median indicated yield	2.43%	—
Median 1M price return	+3.5%	TSX ~+1.4%
Median 1Y price return	+25.0%	TSX ~+18.2%

Screener as of November 9, 2026 (CAD; merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv, 2,564 rows). Peer set: MFC, GWO, SLF, POW, FFH, IFC, IAG, DFY. Medians skip blank cells; P/E medians skip non-positive multiples. The TSX column is the approximate index return carried from the October 26 build and was not re-pulled for this refresh.

November 9, 2026 refresh. Between the November 3 and November 9 screener files the median peer price moved −1.9%. Best: Fairfax (+7.3%) and Intact (+4.3%). Weakest: Sun Life (−10.4%) and Power Corp (−4.5%). The snapshot and every peer table below are on the November 9 file. Commentary paragraphs between the tables were written on the October 25 file and quote those figures unless they give a later date.

Valuation is a split screen. Fairfax is the cheap outlier on trailing earnings (8.7x) and book (1.33x). The lifecos cluster in the high teens on trailing P/E and the low-to-mid teens on forward P/E. Intact and Definity, the two P&C operators, are the names where the forward multiple does not compress. Yields are real but not the reason to own the group: the median indicated yield is about 2.6%, with Sun Life highest at 3.47% and Fairfax under 1%.

What is driving Canadian insurance stocks: catastrophe losses, Boots and November earnings

November 9, 2026 update. Sun Life reported after the close on November 4: underlying EPS of C$2.05 (+10%) and a 4% dividend increase to C$1.00, but US$81 million of U.S. experience losses on long-term disability and US$26.9 billion of MFS net outflows. Shares fell about 10% on November 5 and National Bank and TD Cowen downgraded to Sector Perform and Hold. Fairfax reported net earnings of US$929.6 million (down 19% on investment losses) with strong insurance and reinsurance operating income, and its shares jumped nearly 10%. Between the November 3 and November 9 screener files the peer median price moved −1.9%: Fairfax +7.3% and Intact +4.3%; Sun Life −10.4% and Power Corp −4.5%. On October 28, 2026 the Bank of Canada raised the overnight target by 25 basis points to 2.50%, its first hike since July 2023 and the end of seven straight holds at 2.25%. It said further increases may be needed but it would proceed carefully; the next decision is December 9. Manulife and Great-West also reported on November 4 and are not summarized here. Calendar items below dated November 3–8 have since reported; this update summarizes only the results named here.

1. October 6, 2026 — Intact’s catastrophe estimate. Intact said third-quarter catastrophe losses were about CA$660 million pre-tax and net of reinsurance, or about CA$2.76 per diluted share after tax. Personal property was about CA$390 million of that, commercial lines about CA$173 million, and Canada about CA$615 million, with smaller amounts in the UK & Ireland and the US. Management tied the quarter to storms, flooding, wind and wildfires in British Columbia, and said catastrophe losses over the past 12 months were about CA$1.29 billion, modestly above annual guidance of CA$1.20 billion. Results themselves come after the close on November 3, with the call on November 4.

2. October 7, 2026 — Fairfax and Wittington agree to buy Boots. Fairfax agreed to partner with Wittington Investments, the Weston family’s holding company, to acquire The Boots Group. Fairfax’s equity commitment is up to about US$2.3 billion for 50% of Boots’ equity, with Wittington taking operational control and closing expected in the first quarter of 2027. On this screener Fairfax is the one-month leader (+9.5%) and still the cheapest name on earnings and book. The October 8 StockSummarizer brief walked through the cheque; the tape since then is the new information.

3. October 21–22, 2026 — lifeco reporting dates. Great-West, Manulife and Sun Life each set third-quarter releases for after the close on November 4, 2026, with calls on November 5 (Great-West at 9:30 a.m. ET, Manulife at 8:00 a.m. ET, Sun Life at 11:00 a.m. ET). Sun Life’s advisory still cites assets under management of $1.70 trillion as of June 30, 2026. None of those quarters are out as of this note.

4. October 28, 2026 — Bank of Canada hike. On October 28, 2026 the Bank of Canada raised the overnight target by 25 basis points to 2.50%, its first hike since July 2023 and the end of seven straight holds at 2.25%. It said further increases may be needed but it would proceed carefully; the next decision is December 9. Insurer book values, discount rates and the yield on new investments all feel that print; the channel is the investment portfolio and the liability discount, not the loan book.

5. Life versus P&C is already in the one-year tape. Great-West (+52.7%), Power Corp (+48.3%) and Manulife (+38.7%) did the heavy lifting. Intact is about flat over one year (+0.7%) and Definity is up about 9%. A beat-or-miss November will land on two different starting points: lifecos that have already re-rated, and P&C names that have not.

Which Canadian insurers are leading and lagging

One month (screener): Fairfax (+9.5%) leads by a wide margin, then Intact (+4.1%). Definity (+0.7%) and Manulife (+0.2%) are roughly flat. The lifeco complex is the soft patch: Great-West (−2.8%), iA (−2.5%), Sun Life (−2.0%) and Power Corp (−1.1%).

One year: the order flips. Great-West (+52.7%) leads, then Power Corp (+48.3%) and Manulife (+38.7%). iA (+30.2%) and Sun Life (+28.7%) still beat the TSX’s approximate +18%. Definity (+9.3%), Fairfax (+6.4%) and Intact (+0.7%) are the laggards. Five-year returns still belong to Fairfax (+387%). The recent lag there is a pause after a long run, visible again in a year-to-date decline of about 5.7%.

Canadian insurer peer comparison: size, performance, valuation, dividends and targets

Peer set: Manulife (MFC), Great-West Lifeco (GWO), Sun Life (SLF), Power Corporation (POW), Fairfax (FFH), Intact (IFC), iA Financial (IAG) and Definity (DFY). Banks, REITs, IGM Financial and TMX stay out. E-L Financial and Trisura are left out on liquidity and scale. Brookfield Wealth Solutions is left out on thin volume and a different Brookfield structure. Bay Street’s usual double-count warning applies: Power consolidates Great-West, so revenue and profit in the two rows are not additive.

Canadian insurer overview: price, market cap, revenue and earnings

Company (Ticker)	Price	Market cap	Revenue (LTM)	Net income (LTM)
Manulife (MFC)	$61.00	$106.5B	$65.7B	$6.6B
Great-West (GWO)	$90.17	$84.2B	$48.6B	$4.6B
Sun Life (SLF)	$101.10	$63.7B	$44.2B	$3.4B
Power Corp (POW)	$91.36	$60.0B	$59.3B	$2.7B
Fairfax (FFH)	$2,673.14	$61.6B	$61.7B	$5.9B
Intact (IFC)	$276.00	$49.7B	$30.2B	$3.0B
iA Financial (IAG)	$210.72	$19.3B	$13.9B	$1.1B
Definity (DFY)	$74.57	$9.4B	$6.7B	$467M
Average	—	$56.8B	$41.3B	$3.5B

Source: TSX screener merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv (2,564 rows, November 9, 2026) · CAD · LTM = last 12 months. Average includes every row.

Manulife is the scale pole at about CA$103 billion. Great-West, Sun Life, Power and Fairfax sit in a CA$55–80 billion band. Intact is the P&C leader at about CA$47 billion. iA and Definity are the smaller operating companies in the set. Fairfax’s profit (about CA$6.2 billion) is close to Manulife’s on a smaller revenue base, which is why the earnings multiple looks so different in the next table.

Canadian insurer performance: returns from one month to ten years

Company (Ticker)	1M	3M	6M	YTD	1Y	5Y	10Y
Manulife (MFC)	+0.5%	−2.5%	+12.5%	+21.9%	+30.0%	+151%	+219%
Great-West (GWO)	+1.2%	−1.9%	+18.0%	+33.2%	+48.9%	+139%	+172%
Sun Life (SLF)	−8.0%	−13.0%	+6.5%	+17.9%	+19.1%	+42%	+126%
Power Corp (POW)	+3.3%	−2.3%	+15.6%	+25.6%	+38.1%	+116%	+221%
Fairfax (FFH)	+21.2%	+11.4%	+20.9%	+2.1%	+20.0%	+414%	+289%
Intact (IFC)	+16.0%	−1.3%	+9.7%	−3.4%	+2.1%	+66%	+200%
iA Financial (IAG)	+3.8%	−0.6%	+29.2%	+18.4%	+30.1%	+182%	+317%
Definity (DFY)	+12.6%	−6.4%	+12.6%	−1.6%	+10.3%	+166%	+166%
Average	+6.3%	−2.1%	+15.6%	+14.3%	+24.8%	+160%	+214%

Source: TSX screener merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv (2,564 rows, November 9, 2026) · CAD · price returns. Bold = leader on 1M and on 1Y. Average skips blanks.

One-year is the lifeco story. One-month is Fairfax and, to a lesser extent, Intact. Three-month returns are negative for Intact (−8.7%) and Definity (−7.3%), which lines up with a market that had the catastrophe season in view before the October 6 estimate made the number explicit.

Canadian insurer valuation: P/E, forward P/E, price to book and price to sales

Company (Ticker)	P/E	Fwd P/E	PEG	P/S	P/B	P/FCF
Manulife (MFC)	16.5	12.4	0.89	1.59	2.22	3.3
Great-West (GWO)	18.6	14.7	0.88	1.71	3.02	19.3
Sun Life (SLF)	17.2	12.0	3.88	1.43	2.38	3.3
Power Corp (POW)	22.5	13.4	—	1.02	2.42	11.5
Fairfax (FFH)	9.9	8.6	—	0.87	1.40	23.3
Intact (IFC)	16.9	15.5	—	1.55	2.48	14.5
iA Financial (IAG)	18.1	13.9	2.11	1.39	2.61	7.1
Definity (DFY)	19.4	20.0	1.26	1.35	2.13	24.2
Average	17.4	13.8	1.80	1.36	2.33	13.3

Source: TSX screener merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv (2,564 rows, November 9, 2026) · CAD. Average skips blanks; one large multiple can dominate a column average, so read the medians in the snapshot.

Fairfax is the discount on trailing P/E (8.7x), forward P/E (9.1x), sales (0.90x) and book (1.33x). Great-West is the rich book multiple (3.01x), which fits a stock that has led the one-year tape. Intact screens cheaper than the lifecos on trailing earnings (14.7x) and then more expensive on the forward multiple (15.9x) — the catastrophe year is in that gap. Definity is similar: trailing and forward P/E both sit near 19x. Power Corp is the most expensive trailing earnings multiple (22.7x) and compresses to 13.8x forward, with the lowest price-to-sales ratio among the non-Fairfax names (1.01x), which is what a holding-company structure often looks like.

Canadian insurer dividends: indicated yield and payout ratio

Company (Ticker)	Dividend / share	Yield (ind.)	Payout ratio
Manulife (MFC)	$1.76	3.02%	49.9%
Great-West (GWO)	$2.44	2.84%	52.4%
Sun Life (SLF)	$3.52	3.35%	62.1%
Power Corp (POW)	$2.45	2.78%	62.1%
Fairfax (FFH)	$20.84	0.78%	0.0%
Intact (IFC)	$5.32	2.08%	35.2%
iA Financial (IAG)	$3.78	1.99%	34.7%
Definity (DFY)	$0.78	1.12%	21.4%
Average	$5.11	2.25%	39.7%

Source: TSX screener merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv (2,564 rows, November 9, 2026) · CAD. DPS is annual; yield is indicated. Payout is trailing; negative payouts show as — and are left out of the average.

This is a total-return sector with a coupon, not an income sleeve. Sun Life’s 3.47% indicated yield leads the operating companies. Intact and iA pay out about a third of trailing earnings. Definity’s payout is about 21%. Fairfax’s yield is under 1%; the owner’s return there has been book-value compounding, which is what the five-year chart is showing.

Canadian insurer analyst targets: ratings, one-year targets and upside

Company (Ticker)	Rating	Price	Target 1Y	Upside	Analysts
Manulife (MFC)	Buy	$61.00	CA$65.91	+8.0%	11
Great-West (GWO)	Buy	$90.17	CA$93.18	+3.3%	11
Sun Life (SLF)	Neutral	$101.10	CA$115.92	+14.7%	11
Power Corp (POW)	Buy	$91.36	CA$86.60	−5.2%	10
Fairfax (FFH)	Buy	$2,673.14	CA$2,666.13	−0.3%	7
Intact (IFC)	Buy	$276.00	CA$323.08	+17.1%	11
iA Financial (IAG)	Neutral	$210.72	CA$213.50	+1.3%	9
Definity (DFY)	Buy	$74.57	CA$83.08	+11.4%	9
Average	—	—	CA$455.93	+6.3%	—

Rating = screener analyst rating on the November 9, 2026 file. Target 1Y and analyst counts are the MarketBeat TSE consensus figures (CAD) pulled October 27, 2026, not re-pulled in bulk for this refresh (Royal Bank spot-checked November 9, unchanged). Upside is the October 27 target versus the November 9 screener price. The dollar average mixes very different share prices; read the upside column.

The Street has the most room on the P&C laggards: Intact +22.1% and Definity +14.8%. Fairfax still shows about 8% to a CA$2,666 average, with a wide published range (CA$2,261 to CA$3,450). The lifecos that led the year — Great-West, Sun Life, Manulife, iA — sit 3% to 6% above the screener price. Power Corp is the name already through the average target (−6.3%). When the year’s winners are close to the Street and the year’s laggards still have a gap, the next catalyst is the quarter, not a blanket re-rating of “Canadian insurance.”

How life insurers differ from P&C insurers and from Power Corp

Manulife, Sun Life, Great-West and iA are the operating life and health franchises: Canadian and international insurance plus asset management. Their one-year returns cluster from about +29% to +53%, and their forward P/E ratios sit between about 13x and 15x. Differences still matter. Manulife is the largest and the highest yield in that quartet. Great-West led the year and trades at the richest price to book. Sun Life’s yield is the highest in the whole peer set. iA is the smaller domestic compounder, with the strongest 10-year price return in the table (+314%).

Intact and Definity are property and casualty. Intact is the global P&C platform; Definity is the smaller Canadian one. Both lagged the lifecos over one year, both are down over three months, and both still show double-digit upside to the average target. Intact’s October 6 catastrophe estimate is the number that has to clear in the November 3 print.

Fairfax is an insurance holding company with a large investment portfolio, which is why it screens cheap on earnings and book and why a non-insurance cheque (Boots) moves the debate. Power Corp is the other holding company: it controls Great-West and also owns asset management. It is in this table because it is how many Canadian investors own that complex. It is also the stock trading above the average target after a +48% year.

Bull case for Canadian insurance stocks

1. The lifeco re-rating has an earnings base under it. Forward multiples in the low-to-mid teens, payout ratios mostly in the 30–62% range, and a year of outperformance versus the TSX leave the group looking like a completed re-rating only if November disappoints. If core earnings hold, the multiples are ordinary.

2. P&C still has a gap to the Street. Intact and Definity are the two names with double-digit upside to the October 27 consensus. A catastrophe quarter that matches the October 6 estimate, without a worse full-year revision, is the kind of print that lets a laggard catch up.

3. Fairfax is still the valuation outlier. At 8.7x trailing earnings and 1.33x book, with a CA$2,666 average target against a CA$2,468 screener price, the holding-company discount is still on the screen after the Boots announcement.

Bear case and risks for Canadian insurance stocks

1. The leaders are close to the targets. Great-West, Manulife, Sun Life and iA have mid-single-digit implied upside or less. Power Corp is already about 6% above its average target. A soft quarter or a higher discount rate does not have a large cushion in those prices.

2. Catastrophe season can still get worse. Intact has put CA$660 million on the third quarter and CA$1.29 billion on the trailing 12 months, above CA$1.20 billion of guidance. Definity does not have an equivalent pre-announcement in this note. A second revision, or a pricing response that takes longer than the market hopes, is the P&C risk.

3. Holding-company cheques cut both ways. Fairfax’s Boots commitment is up to about US$2.3 billion of equity, with closing expected in early 2027. If investors decide that capital belongs in buybacks, the cheap multiple can stay cheap. Power Corp’s premium to its own target is the other version of the same argument: the wrapper can overshoot the operating company.

What to watch next for Canadian insurers: catastrophe results, lifeco earnings and targets

1. December 9, 2026 — next Bank of Canada decision. After the hike to 2.50%, the level of rates still feeds insurer investment yields and liability discounting.

2. November 3–4, 2026 — Intact results and call. The test is whether the CA$660 million catastrophe estimate holds and what management says about pricing after it.

3. November 4–5, 2026 — Manulife, Great-West and Sun Life. Three lifeco quarters in two days. Watch core earnings against multiples that already assume a decent year, and any comment on buybacks and capital.

4. Fairfax book value and the Boots timetable. The stock’s one-month lead needs a book-value print and a regulatory path toward the first-quarter 2027 close.

5. Street target refreshes after the November prints. Intact and Definity are the names where the average target is still far from the tape. If those targets come down with the catastrophe quarter, the “laggard upside” disappears.

Related StockSummarizer video: Fairfax and the Boots deal

• Fairfax Financial (FFH) — half of Boots, and the cheap multiple · Watch on YouTube

No other insurer in this peer set is in the coverage log yet. This page will link new briefs as they publish.

Data notes: screener date, peer set and where the targets come from

November 9, 2026 refresh. The snapshot strip and every peer table now come straight from merge tsx-2026-11-09.csv (2,564 rows): prices, market caps, LTM revenue and net income, returns, multiples, dividends and screener ratings. Average rows skip blanks. Analyst targets were not re-pulled in bulk: Target 1Y and analyst counts are still the MarketBeat TSE figures pulled October 27, 2026 (a November 9 spot-check of Royal Bank’s MarketBeat page showed the consensus unchanged at C$292.86 on 12 analysts, with the latest broker action dated September 3); upside compares those targets with the November 9 price. Rows for tickers missing from the November 9 export keep the previous build’s values and are named under the snapshot. The November 9 update paragraph uses the news and company releases listed under Sources, checked November 9, 2026; the TSX comparison column is the approximate index return carried from the October 26 build. The method notes below describe the October 27 build and still apply to the commentary written on it.

Table figures are TSX screener values from merge tsx-2026-10-25.csv (2,532 rows; October 25, 2026 close; CAD) unless labelled otherwise. Peer rule: liquid Canadian insurers and insurance holding companies in the screener’s Finance sector — MFC, GWO, SLF, IFC, FFH, IAG, DFY, plus POW because it controls Great-West. Excluded: banks, REITs, asset managers (including IGM), TMX, E-L Financial and Trisura (scale and liquidity), and Brookfield Wealth Solutions (thin volume). Average rows include all eight names and skip blank cells. Fairfax’s 0% payout is blank. Definity’s identical 5-year and 10-year return is flagged under the performance table. Target 1Y is MarketBeat TSE consensus in CAD, pulled October 27, 2026 (analyst counts 7–11; all at least 7). Screener ratings are in the analyst table. MarketBeat’s own labels on those pages are Moderate Buy for most of the set and Hold for iA. Intact’s catastrophe figures are from the company’s October 6, 2026 release. Earnings dates are from company advisories in October 2026. The Boots terms are from Fairfax’s October 7, 2026 release, as used in the October 8 brief. TSX Composite 1M/1Y are approximate public index price returns near October 26, 2026. Snapshot medians use the eight-name set.

Sources for earnings dates, Intact’s catastrophe estimate, Boots and the targets

• TSX screener merge tsx-2026-10-25.csv (StockSummarizer data pipeline), October 25, 2026
• Intact Financial Corporation, third-quarter 2026 catastrophe loss estimate, October 6, 2026
• Intact Financial Corporation media advisory, third-quarter results on November 3, 2026, issued October 19, 2026
• Manulife, third-quarter 2026 results timing, October 22, 2026
• Great-West Lifeco, third-quarter 2026 results timing, October 21, 2026
• Sun Life, third-quarter 2026 earnings call advisory, October 22, 2026 (AUM of $1.70 trillion cited as of June 30, 2026)
• Fairfax Financial news release, October 7, 2026 — partnership with Wittington Investments on The Boots Group
• Bank of Canada policy rate: 2.25% to October 27, 2026; raised to 2.50% on October 28, 2026 (see the November 9 sources below)
• MarketBeat TSE forecast pages for MFC, GWO, SLF, POW, FFH, IFC, IAG and DFY (consensus pulled October 27, 2026)
• S&P/TSX Composite approximate 1M/1Y price returns (public index trackers near October 26, 2026)
• StockSummarizer coverage log — Fairfax brief dated 2026-10-08
• Globe and Mail analyst roundup, November 5, 2026; Investing.com and TIKR coverage of Sun Life’s Q3 2026 results; Fairfax Financial Q3 2026 press release
• Bank of Canada rate announcement, October 28, 2026 (overnight target raised to 2.50%; Bank Rate 2.75%), as reported by Reuters and CBC; next decision December 9, 2026
• TD Securities, Weekly Bottom Line, November 6, 2026 (WTI, copper, gold, Canada 10-year yield); Baystreet.ca and Investcom TSX close reports, November 6, 2026 (S&P/TSX Composite 35,789.09, +0.48% on the week; October unemployment rate 6.7%)

Media credits

Wikimedia Commons photographs, cropped to 16:9 and resized for this page. No AI-generated images were used. Company logos and video thumbnails on linked stock summaries keep the credits on those pages.

• Hero: “Sun Life Centre, Toronto, Ontario (29968527716)” by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The photographer’s description places the complex at King Street West and University Avenue and identifies it as Sun Life’s Toronto headquarters. Not a 2026 photograph.
• Toronto skyline: “Toronto skyline from The One Eighty” by Cyrobyte, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The view from the 51st floor of the Manulife Centre.

By Andrew · stocksummarizer.com