Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Sets New 1-Year High – Should You Buy?

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$52.59 and last traded at C$52.48, with a volume of 5328044 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$52.09.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on GWO. CIBC raised 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 research note on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. TD Securities upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a research report on Friday, February 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$54.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$52.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market cap of C$49.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is C$48.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$46.86.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a $0.555 dividend. This represents a $2.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, December 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total transaction of C$26,721.58. Also, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$52.31, for a total transaction of C$784,695.00. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,962 shares of company stock worth $1,766,464. 70.70% of the stock is currently 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.