Desjardins Expects Increased Earnings for Great-West Lifeco

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Free Report) - Analysts at Desjardins lifted their FY2026 EPS estimates for shares of Great-West Lifeco in a report released on Wednesday, August 6th. Desjardins analyst D. Young now expects that the company will post earnings per share of $5.20 for the year, up from their prior estimate of $5.10. Desjardins currently has a "Hold" rating and a $55.00 target price on the stock. The consensus estimate for Great-West Lifeco's current full-year earnings is $4.45 per share.

GWO has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$56.00 to C$57.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. CIBC dropped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$57.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of C$56.67.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of GWO traded up C$0.44 during midday trading on Monday, reaching C$54.04. The stock had a trading volume of 164,698 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,880,086. Great-West Lifeco has a 1-year low of C$42.48 and a 1-year high of C$57.61. The company's fifty day simple moving average is C$51.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$52.01. The company has a market cap of C$50.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, August 5th that permits the company to repurchase $0.00 in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 29th will be given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.79%.

Insider Transactions at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.85, for a total transaction of C$1,073,263.95. Insiders own 70.70% of the company's stock.

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.