The Financial Post reports in its Friday, Aug. 15, edition that RBC Capital Markets analyst Darko Mihelic says Canadian life insurer stocks are looking "interesting" and could see valuation multiples improve "materially." The Post's David Pett writes in the Trading Desk column that Mr. Mihelic recently raised his target multiples for Great West Life, Manulife Financial and Sun Life Financial. This week he increased his multiple for Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services to 12.5 times, from 12 times previously, resulting in a new price target for the stock of $53. Mr. Mihelic estimates core earnings per share growth of 11 per cent on average for the group in 2015. He believes solid asset management growth provides future earnings power for all four lifecos. He thinks target multiples could move higher than his estimates if better insurance sales growth is generated and the return on equity for the group improves. The analyst says: "We believe more clarity is required from lifecos on the plans for future capital deployment. ... Considerations such as size, geography, scale, and hurdle rates of return for potential acquisitions have recently, in our view, not been well defined (with the exception of IAG)."