Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings Sells 75,457 Shares

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

Great-West Lifeco Trading Down 1.3 %

GWO stock traded down C$0.73 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting C$56.74. The stock had a trading volume of 145,242 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,076,612. Great-West Lifeco Inc. has a 1-year low of C$38.44 and a 1-year high of C$57.61. The company has a fifty day moving average of C$51.72 and a 200 day moving average of C$48.86. The stock has a market capitalization of C$52.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.98, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GWO shares. Cibc World Mkts raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Desjardins raised 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. Royal Bank of Canada upped 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. CIBC raised Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.