Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Shares Cross Above 200-Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$48.09 and traded as high as C$52.65. Great-West Lifeco shares last traded at C$52.25, with a volume of 2,605,745 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GWO. TD Securities upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. CIBC raised Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank upped their target price 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. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price target 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. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$48.65 billion, a PE ratio of 11.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$49.88 and its 200 day moving average is C$48.09.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.67%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is 50.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.31, for a total transaction of C$784,695.00. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total value of C$26,721.58. In the last three months, insiders sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696. Insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

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.