Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Director Sells C$3,007,402.00 in Stock

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Director Mei Dong sold 39,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$76.33, for a total value of C$3,007,402.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,721 shares in the company, valued at C$207,693.93. This represents a 93.54% decrease in their position.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$77.31 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of C$70.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.59. Great-West Lifeco Inc. has a 1 year low of C$49.78 and a 1 year high of C$77.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.59, a current ratio of 6.57 and a quick ratio of 22.18. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is C$67.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$65.49.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a return on equity of 15.17% and a net margin of 12.86%.The business had revenue of C$8.37 billion for the quarter. On average, research analysts anticipate that Great-West Lifeco Inc. will post 4.4525194 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 3rd. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.76%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GWO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Scotia upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$78.00 to C$83.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$65.00 to C$73.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Desjardins upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$71.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$83.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$77.18.

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. In 2020, Great-West announced it would acquire Personal Capital and MassMutual’s recordkeeping business. In Europe, Great-West offers life insurance, annuities, and reinsurance primarily in the U.K., Ireland, and Germany.