Insider Selling: Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Insider Sells 75,457 Shares of Stock

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 75,457 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.44, for a total value of C$4,032,671.09.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Down 1.3 %

TSE:GWO traded down C$0.73 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching C$56.74. 145,242 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,076,612. The company has a market capitalization of C$52.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco Inc. has a 12 month low of C$38.44 and a 12 month high of C$57.61. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is C$51.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$48.86.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.30%. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is presently 50.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on GWO shares. BMO Capital Markets increased 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 research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. CIBC upgraded shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Desjardins upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$52.22.

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.