Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Raised to C$59.00

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price objective boosted by BMO Capital Markets from C$54.00 to C$59.00 in a report published on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research 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 research note on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Great-West Lifeco currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$54.89.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of GWO stock opened at C$56.33 on Thursday. Great-West Lifeco has a fifty-two week low of C$38.44 and a fifty-two week high of C$57.61. The firm has a market cap of C$52.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50 day moving average price is C$52.12 and its 200-day moving average price is C$49.02.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Great-West Lifeco

In related news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 9,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.14, for a total value of C$484,931.76. Also, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 144,257 shares of company stock valued at $7,640,646. 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.