Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$67.22.

Several brokerages have recently commented on GWO. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$67.00 to C$73.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from C$67.00 to C$70.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of TSE GWO opened at C$61.73 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$64.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$61.43. Great-West Lifeco has a twelve month low of C$49.54 and a twelve month high of C$68.56. The firm has a market capitalization of C$55.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a quick ratio of 22.18, a current ratio of 5.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.93.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is currently 57.28%.

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.