Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Lowered to C$47.00 at Barclays

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price objective reduced by Barclays from C$48.00 to C$47.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,BayStreet.CA reports.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$54.00 to C$59.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Desjardins upped 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 report on Friday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Scotiabank upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a 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 note on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$55.00.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

GWO opened at C$51.00 on Friday. Great-West Lifeco has a 12 month low of C$38.44 and a 12 month high of C$57.61. The stock has a market capitalization of C$47.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$52.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$49.30.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.61 per share. This is an increase 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.78%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total transaction of C$244,827.70. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 144,257 shares of company stock worth $7,640,646 over the last three months. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.