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

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

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GWO. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. National Bankshares decreased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$52.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. 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. TD Securities boosted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, CIBC decreased their target price on 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.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of GWO opened at C$51.34 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$52.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$50.64. The stock has a market capitalization of C$47.80 billion, a PE ratio of 11.75, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 1 year low of C$38.44 and a 1 year high of C$57.61.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 2nd. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In related news, Senior Officer Dervla Mary Tomlin sold 36,700 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction 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. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction on 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. Insiders have sold a total of 142,157 shares of company stock worth $7,464,387 in the last three months. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

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