Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Raised to C$62.00 at TD Securities

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price boosted by TD Securities from C$53.00 to C$62.00 in a report issued on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GWO. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective 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. Cibc World Mkts raised Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Desjardins boosted their target price 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. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, 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 report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$54.89.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

TSE:GWO opened at C$56.77 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of C$51.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$48.94. The firm has a market cap of C$52.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a fifty-two week low of C$38.44 and a fifty-two week high of C$57.61.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a $0.61 dividend. 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 4.30%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.79%.

Insider Activity

In other Great-West Lifeco news, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the business’s 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. Also, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total value of C$438,927.25. Insiders have sold a total of 144,257 shares of company stock valued at $7,640,646 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

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.