Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Given a C$53.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada set a C$53.00 price target on Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) in a research report report published on Tuesday,BayStreet.CA reports. The firm currently has a sector perform rating on the stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. TD Securities raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$62.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Desjardins increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$55.00.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

GWO opened at C$52.12 on Tuesday. 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 cap of C$48.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is C$52.99 and its 200 day moving average price is C$49.41.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were paid a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insider Transactions at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer Linda Kerrigan sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$51.64, for a total value of C$438,927.25. Also, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the 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. Insiders have sold 144,257 shares of company stock valued at $7,640,646 in the last three months. 70.70% of the stock is 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.