Insider Selling: Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Insider Sells C$4,032,671.09 in Stock

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total value of C$4,032,671.09.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock opened at C$56.33 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$52.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$49.02. The firm has a market capitalization 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. Great-West Lifeco Inc. 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 company also recently disclosed 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. 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%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$54.89.

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.