Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Great-West Lifeco Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from ten brokerages, with an average 12-month price target of C$56.67.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.61 per share, providing an annualized yield of 4.5%.
• Great-West Lifeco has a market cap of C$50.40 billion and recently announced a share repurchase program, indicating a belief in the stock's undervaluation.

Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) have been given a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" by the ten research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$56.67.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective 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 note on Wednesday, August 6th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective 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 note on Thursday, August 7th. Desjardins boosted their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of TSE:GWO traded up C$0.64 during trading on Tuesday, hitting C$53.84. 1,206,757 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,821,503. The stock has a market capitalization of C$50.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.49, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.68. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$44.89 and a 12-month high of C$57.61. The firm's 50 day moving average price is C$53.50 and its 200-day moving average price is C$52.65.

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

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 29th. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.5%. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio is 58.40%.

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.