Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Increases Dividend to $0.61 Per Share

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 3rd, TickerTech Dividends reports. Shareholders 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 a positive change 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 trading hours on Friday, reaching C$53.74. The stock had a trading volume of 6,165,987 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,611,869. The stock has a market cap of C$50.03 billion, a PE ratio of 12.30, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84. Great-West Lifeco has a 52 week low of C$38.44 and a 52 week high of C$53.94. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of C$48.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$47.27.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Great-West Lifeco

In other news, Senior Officer David Martin Harney sold 562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$47.55, for a total value of C$26,721.58. Also, Director Charles Donald Harvey Henaire sold 26,100 shares of the 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 60,062 shares of company stock valued at $3,149,764. Insiders own 70.70% of the company’s stock.

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.