Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Hits New 12-Month High – Should You Buy?

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Friday . The company traded as high as C$22.57 and last traded at C$52.99, with a volume of 440010 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$53.12.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Desjardins increased 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 report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average price is C$50.25 and its 200-day moving average price is C$48.29. The stock has a market cap of C$49.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.14, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total value of C$438,927.25. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total transaction of C$1,383,300.00. Insiders have sold a total of 69,362 shares of company stock valued at $3,634,696 in the last 90 days. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.