Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Reaches New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) shares hit a new 52-week high during trading on Thursday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from C$51.00 to C$58.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a hold rating on the stock. Great-West Lifeco traded as high as C$57.61 and last traded at C$57.47, with a volume of 2611309 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$57.05.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on GWO. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities upped their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$54.89.

Insider Activity

In other Great-West Lifeco news, 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. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total transaction of C$1,383,300.00. Insiders have sold a total of 144,257 shares of company stock valued at $7,640,646 in the last 90 days. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of C$52.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$49.02. The company has a market capitalization of C$52.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.89, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.79%.

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.