Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) reached a new 52-week high on Friday . The stock traded as high as C$54.84 and last traded at C$54.72, with a volume of 18404 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$54.48.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GWO. Barclays upped their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. CIBC upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective 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 note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of 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. Finally, Desjardins lifted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of C$50.72 billion, a PE ratio of 12.46, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is C$50.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$48.53.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.48%. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is 50.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total transaction of C$26,721.58. Also, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total transaction of C$438,927.25. Insiders have sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696 in the last ninety days. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.