Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

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

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GWO shares. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of 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. TD Securities upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of 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, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

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

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

TSE GWO opened at C$53.48 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of C$49.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 12 month low of C$38.44 and a 12 month high of C$54.64. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$50.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.33.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.56%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. 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.