Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Shares Pass Above 200 Day Moving Average – Here’s What Happened

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s share price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$48.09 and traded as high as C$52.65. Great-West Lifeco shares last traded at C$52.25, with a volume of 2,605,745 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GWO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Desjardins upped their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts raised Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of C$49.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is C$49.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$48.14.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.59%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is presently 50.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total transaction of C$26,721.58. Insiders sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696 in the last 90 days. 70.70% of the stock is 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.