Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Increases Dividend to $0.61 Per Share

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 3rd, TickerTech Dividends reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.61 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.6 %

GWO stock traded up C$0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting C$53.74. 6,165,987 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,611,869. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of C$48.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$47.27. The stock has a market capitalization of C$50.03 billion, a PE ratio of 12.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 1-year low of C$38.44 and a 1-year high of C$53.94.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GWO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. CIBC upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$52.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total value of C$1,383,300.00. Also, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.31, for a total transaction of C$784,695.00. Insiders have sold 60,062 shares of company stock worth $3,149,764 in the last quarter. Insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

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.