Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Stock Price

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from C$56.00 to C$57.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. National Bankshares reduced their price objective 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 research note on Thursday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$57.00 in a research note on Monday, April 21st. CIBC reduced their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$57.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$53.00 price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$56.67.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 3.7%

TSE GWO opened at C$54.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of C$50.44 billion, a PE ratio of 12.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a 50 day moving average price of C$51.57 and a 200 day moving average price of C$51.73. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$39.45 and a 52 week high of C$57.61.

Great-West Lifeco declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 5th that authorizes the company to buyback $0.00 in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is 50.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 20,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.85, for a total transaction of C$1,073,263.95. Also, Senior Officer Dervla Mary Tomlin sold 36,700 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.05, for a total transaction of C$1,873,520.32. Corporate 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.