Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Raised to C$58.00

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price lifted by Jefferies Financial Group from C$51.00 to C$58.00 in a research note published on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a hold rating on the stock.

GWO has been the topic of several other reports. CIBC raised Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities boosted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Desjardins increased their price target on shares of 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$54.89.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Down 0.8 %

TSE:GWO opened at C$56.33 on Thursday. Great-West Lifeco has a twelve month low of C$38.44 and a twelve month high of C$57.61. The company has a market cap of C$52.44 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day moving average is C$52.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$49.02.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total value of C$4,032,671.09. Also, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total value of C$244,827.70. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 144,257 shares of company stock valued at $7,640,646. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.