Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.61

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 3rd, TickerTech Dividends reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.61 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This is an increase from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Great-West Lifeco stock traded up C$0.33 during midday trading on Friday, reaching C$53.74. The company had a trading volume of 6,165,987 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,611,869. The company has a market capitalization of C$50.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$38.44 and a 12-month high of C$53.94. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is C$48.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$47.27.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Christine Marie Moritz sold 4,700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$52.09, for a total value of C$244,827.70. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$53.00, for a total transaction of C$1,383,300.00. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,062 shares of company stock worth $3,149,764. Insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on GWO shares. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$49.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. TD Securities raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$49.00 to C$53.00 in a research note on Friday, February 7th. CIBC raised shares of Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from C$56.00 to C$60.00 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 research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$52.22.

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.