Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Given New C$70.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price boosted by Scotiabank from C$68.00 to C$70.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada set a C$60.00 price objective on Great-West Lifeco and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, January 19th. National Bankshares raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Desjardins boosted their price target 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, October 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$66.44.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of TSE:GWO opened at C$62.80 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is C$65.77 and its 200-day moving average is C$59.80. The company has a market cap of C$56.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.53. Great-West Lifeco has a 52-week low of C$49.54 and a 52-week high of C$68.56.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$1.33 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.21 billion during the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a return on equity of 14.81% and a net margin of 16.06%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 EPS for the current year.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st were given a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is 55.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total transaction of C$6,098,259.32. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$317,131.16. The trade was a 95.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 70.70% of the stock is currently 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. 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.