Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Price Target Raised to C$71.00 at Desjardins

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its price target upped by research analysts at Desjardins from C$68.00 to C$71.00 in a report released on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a “hold” rating on the stock. Desjardins’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 0.38% from the stock’s current price.

GWO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a research note on Friday, January 9th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$73.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$67.00 to C$73.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$68.44.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

TSE:GWO traded up C$1.16 on Friday, reaching C$70.73. The stock had a trading volume of 295,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,760,540. The company has a market capitalization of C$64.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.57. Great-West Lifeco has a 1-year low of C$49.54 and a 1-year high of C$70.91. The company has a quick ratio of 22.18, a current ratio of 5.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.93. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of C$64.25 and a 200-day moving average price of C$63.44.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The company reported C$1.36 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$8.34 billion for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 10.96% and a return on equity of 13.98%. Research analysts forecast that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider L.P. Great-West Lifeco U.S. Holdings sold 46,413 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of C$63.46, for a total value of C$2,945,368.98. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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. In 2020, Great-West announced it would acquire Personal Capital and MassMutual’s recordkeeping business. In Europe, Great-West offers life insurance, annuities, and reinsurance primarily in the U.K., Ireland, and Germany.