Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Raised to C$93.00

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price lifted by National Bank Financial from C$73.00 to C$93.00 in a report issued on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a sector perform rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on GWO. Scotia boosted their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$78.00 to C$83.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$71.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$81.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$84.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$64.00 to C$77.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$86.36.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of GWO stock opened at C$92.40 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is C$86.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$73.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.59, a quick ratio of 22.18 and a current ratio of 6.57. Great-West Lifeco has a 1 year low of C$51.60 and a 1 year high of C$93.69. The firm has a market cap of C$82.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.87, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.67.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$1.37 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.37 billion during the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a return on equity of 15.17% and a net margin of 12.86%. Analysts predict that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 earnings per share for the current year.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 2nd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other news, insider Jean-Francois Poulin sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$89.55, for a total value of C$1,791,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 160 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$14,328. This trade represents a 99.21% decrease in their position. Also, Director Mei Dong sold 39,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$76.33, for a total transaction of C$3,007,402.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 2,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$207,693.93. This trade represents a 93.54% decrease in their position. In the last three months, insiders have sold 119,200 shares of company stock valued at $9,821,888. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Great-West Lifeco

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. In 2020, Great-West announced it would acquire Personal Capital and MassMutual’s recordkeeping business. In Europe, Great-West offers life insurance, annuities, and reinsurance primarily in the U.K., Ireland, and Germany.