Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$52.22.

GWO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Securities upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In related news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total transaction of C$26,721.58. Also, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total transaction of C$244,827.70. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.8 %

TSE GWO opened at C$53.48 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is C$50.40 and its 200 day moving average price is C$48.33. Great-West Lifeco has a twelve month low of C$38.44 and a twelve month high of C$54.64. The company has a market capitalization of C$49.79 billion, a PE ratio of 12.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.61 dividend. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.79%.

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.