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

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$55.56.

GWO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. CIBC cut their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$57.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$53.00 price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group decreased 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. Finally, National Bankshares lowered their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$52.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 8th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 dated 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 corporate insiders.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock traded up C$0.10 during trading on Thursday, hitting C$50.21. The company's stock had a trading volume of 257,251 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,134,195. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$39.29 and a 52 week high of C$57.61. The stock has a market cap of C$46.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$51.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$50.89.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th were given 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 dividend yield of 4.86%. Great-West Lifeco's payout ratio is presently 50.79%.

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.