Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, TD Securities Analyst Says

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price objective raised by TD Securities from C$53.00 to C$62.00 in a research note released on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. TD Securities currently has a buy rating on the stock.

GWO has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$54.89.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$56.33 on Thursday. Great-West Lifeco has a 1 year low of C$38.44 and a 1 year high of C$57.61. The company has a market capitalization of C$52.44 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average price of C$52.12 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$49.02.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total transaction of C$4,032,671.09. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 worth $7,640,646 over the last 90 days. 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.