Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$93.27.

GWO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. TD increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$98.00 to C$106.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$86.00 to C$87.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Scotia boosted 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 report on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$95.00 to C$100.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Desjardins raised their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$93.00 to C$95.00 in a report on Thursday, July 30th.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Down 1.4%

GWO opened at C$89.11 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of C$79.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 28.63, a current ratio of 6.07 and a quick ratio of 22.18. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is C$91.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$78.24. Great-West Lifeco has a fifty-two week low of C$52.51 and a fifty-two week high of C$94.10.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The company reported C$1.42 EPS for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 12.49% and a return on equity of 15.48%. The company had revenue of C$8.35 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts anticipate that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 EPS for the current year.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 29th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 1st. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 52.89%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$86.20, for a total transaction of C$3,448,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$757,180.80. This represents a 81.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Jean-Francois Poulin sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$89.55, for a total transaction of C$1,791,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 160 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$14,328. This represents a 99.21% decrease in their position. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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. 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.