Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Given New C$52.00 Price Target at National Bankshares

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price target decreased by National Bankshares from C$53.00 to C$52.00 in a report released on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. National Bankshares currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

GWO has been the topic of a number of other research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased 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 report on Thursday, April 3rd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Barclays cut 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, TD Securities increased their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$55.56.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$51.85 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$53.08 and its 200-day moving average price is C$50.11. The stock has a market capitalization of C$48.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$38.44 and a 12-month high of C$57.61.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.71%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total value of C$438,927.25. Also, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.31, for a total transaction of C$784,695.00. Insiders sold 139,557 shares of company stock worth $7,395,818 over the last three months. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.