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

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$67.22.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on GWO shares. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a research report on Friday, January 9th. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$73.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. National Bank Financial boosted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total value of C$6,098,259.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$317,131.16. The trade was a 95.06% decrease in their position. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock opened at C$63.76 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of C$65.26 and a 200-day moving average price of C$60.46. The firm has a market cap of C$57.84 billion, a PE ratio of 14.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.53. Great-West Lifeco has a 1 year low of C$49.54 and a 1 year high of C$68.56.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.28%.

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.