Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives C$55.00 Average PT from Analysts

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$54.89.

GWO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada set a C$53.00 price target on Great-West Lifeco and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a research note on Monday. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Desjardins raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock traded up C$0.16 during trading on Friday, hitting C$52.94. The company's stock had a trading volume of 207,788 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,853,775. The stock has a market cap of C$49.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$38.44 and a 52 week high of C$57.61. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$53.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$49.68.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.61%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco's previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insider Transactions at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total value of C$244,827.70. Also, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total transaction of C$438,927.25. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 144,257 shares of company stock worth $7,640,646. Company insiders own 70.70% of the company's stock.

Great-West Lifeco Company Profile

Great-West Lifeco is one of the three big Canadian life insurance firms. With just under half of the firm's profit and revenue in Canada, Great-West also operates in the U.S. and Europe. In Canada, Great-West provides both individual and group insurance. In the United States, Great-West operates Putnam Investments and defined-contribution recordkeeping firm Empower Retirement.