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

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the ten research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings 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 issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$55.56.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GWO. National Bankshares decreased their price target on 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. Barclays decreased their price target 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 price target on Great-West Lifeco and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, TD Securities increased their price target 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 Price Performance

Shares of GWO stock opened at C$50.81 on Wednesday. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$38.44 and a 12-month high of C$57.61. The firm has a market capitalization of C$47.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$52.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$50.21.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.80%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco's previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco's dividend payout ratio is 50.79%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Senior Officer Dervla Mary Tomlin sold 5,200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.17, for a total value of C$271,292.84. Also, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total value of C$4,032,671.09. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 124,557 shares of company stock worth $6,611,123. 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.

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