Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of "Hold" by the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$55.56.

Several research analysts have commented on GWO shares. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a report on Monday, April 21st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$48.00 to C$47.00 in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, National Bankshares lowered their price target 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 report on Thursday, May 8th.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of GWO traded down C$0.32 during midday trading on Friday, hitting C$50.47. 3,113,620 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,229,997. The firm has a 50 day moving average of C$52.11 and a 200-day moving average of C$50.66. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$38.44 and a 52 week high of C$57.61. The stock has a market cap of C$46.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.55, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.83%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 2nd. Great-West Lifeco's payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.85, for a total value of C$1,073,263.95. Also, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total transaction of C$4,032,671.09. Insiders sold a total of 132,857 shares of company stock valued at $6,979,455 over the last 90 days. 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.