Barclays Cuts Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target to C$47.00

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price target cut by Barclays from C$48.00 to C$47.00 in a research note published on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Scotiabank upped their price objective 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. Desjardins increased their price objective 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. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$55.00.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$51.00 on Friday. Great-West Lifeco has a 52-week low of C$38.44 and a 52-week high of C$57.61. The company has a market capitalization of C$47.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of C$52.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$49.32.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.78%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total transaction of C$244,827.70. Also, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 15,000 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$52.31, for a total value of C$784,695.00. Insiders sold 144,257 shares of company stock worth $7,640,646 in the last quarter. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.