Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Receives C$67.22 Consensus PT from Brokerages

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) has earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$67.22.

GWO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays boosted their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$67.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Friday, February 13th. TD Securities lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$73.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped 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 report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

TSE:GWO opened at C$64.00 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.93, a quick ratio of 22.18 and a current ratio of 5.80. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of C$64.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$61.71. The firm has a market capitalization of C$58.06 billion, a PE ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.63. Great-West Lifeco has a 52-week low of C$49.54 and a 52-week high of C$68.56.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 3rd. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.