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

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

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GWO. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Desjardins boosted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other news, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total transaction of C$1,383,300.00. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the company’s 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. Insiders have sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696 over the last 90 days. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$55.26 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of C$51.45 billion, a PE ratio of 12.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average of C$51.07 and a 200-day moving average of C$48.63. Great-West Lifeco has a one year low of C$38.44 and a one year high of C$55.32.

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 issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.42%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.