Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Upgraded at UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Scotiabank increased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$61.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Desjardins increased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays increased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$57.00 to C$58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, TD Securities raised their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$66.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$57.78.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Down 1.7%

GWO opened at C$57.78 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of C$53.82 billion, a PE ratio of 14.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.65. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$44.89 and a 52 week high of C$59.36. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$55.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$53.10.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 29th were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.40%.

Great-West Lifeco announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, August 5th that permits the company to buyback $0.00 in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.