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

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$52.22.

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

Insider Activity

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the business’s 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. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total value of C$26,721.58. Insiders have sold a total of 60,062 shares of company stock valued at $3,149,764 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock opened at C$53.41 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of C$49.73 billion, a PE ratio of 12.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$48.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$47.17. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$38.44 and a 12-month high of C$53.94.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were issued a $0.555 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.16%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

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.