Linda Kerrigan Sells 8,500 Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Stock

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total transaction of C$438,927.25.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of GWO stock opened at C$51.88 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of C$47.70 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$46.60. The company has a market cap of C$48.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.87, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco Inc. has a 52 week low of C$38.44 and a 52 week high of C$52.48.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st were given a dividend of $0.555 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.28%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GWO. CIBC upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. TD Securities upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Desjardins lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$52.22.

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.