Desjardins Increases Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target to C$71.00

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Desjardins from C$68.00 to C$71.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the stock. Desjardins’ target price points to a potential upside of 0.67% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on GWO. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$67.00 to C$73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Barclays upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. TD Securities upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$73.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from C$67.00 to C$70.00 in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$68.44.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 1.4%

TSE GWO opened at C$70.53 on Friday. Great-West Lifeco has a 12 month low of C$49.54 and a 12 month high of C$70.91. The company has a market capitalization of C$63.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.56, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.57. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$64.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$63.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.93, a current ratio of 5.80 and a quick ratio of 22.18.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported C$1.36 EPS for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 10.96% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The business had revenue of C$8.34 billion during the quarter. Equities research analysts expect that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 46,413 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.46, for a total transaction of C$2,945,368.98. Corporate insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

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.