Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives C$62.11 Average Price Target from Analysts

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$62.11.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on GWO shares. National Bankshares increased their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Desjardins raised their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. UBS Group raised shares of Great-West Lifeco to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$65.00 to C$67.00 in a report on Friday, November 7th. Finally, TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$66.00 to C$70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.1%

TSE:GWO opened at C$67.49 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is C$63.25 and its 200-day moving average price is C$57.07. The company has a market cap of C$61.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.69. Great-West Lifeco has a twelve month low of C$44.89 and a twelve month high of C$68.12.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 16.06% and a return on equity of 14.81%. The company had revenue of C$8.21 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 earnings per share for the current year.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 55.34%.

Insider Transactions at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total value of C$6,098,259.32. Following the sale, the director owned 4,916 shares in the company, valued at C$317,131.16. The trade was a 95.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by company 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. In 2020, Great-West announced it would acquire Personal Capital and MassMutual’s recordkeeping business. In Europe, Great-West offers life insurance, annuities, and reinsurance primarily in the U.K., Ireland, and Germany.