Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Shares Pass Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$47.74 and traded as high as C$52.78. Great-West Lifeco shares last traded at C$52.10, with a volume of 5,315,161 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on GWO. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Desjardins increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

The company has a fifty day simple moving average of C$49.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$47.85. The company has a market cap of C$47.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.70, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. This represents a $2.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total transaction of C$1,383,300.00. Also, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 9,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$52.14, for a total value of C$484,931.76. Insiders sold 69,362 shares of company stock worth $3,634,696 in the last quarter. 70.70% of the stock is owned by company 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.