Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the ten analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$55.56.

GWO has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a research report on Monday, April 21st. CIBC lowered their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$57.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays dropped their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$48.00 to C$47.00 in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$53.00 target price on Great-West Lifeco and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, TD Securities boosted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of GWO traded up C$0.10 on Thursday, reaching C$50.21. 257,251 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,134,195. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is C$51.44 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$50.92. The stock has a market cap of C$46.75 billion, a PE ratio of 11.49, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 52-week low of C$39.29 and a 52-week high of C$57.61.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 2nd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.86%. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred 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. Also, Senior Officer Dervla Mary Tomlin sold 36,700 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$51.05, for a total transaction of C$1,873,520.32. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company 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.