Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Hits New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as C$59.79 and last traded at C$59.54, with a volume of 2666600 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$59.46.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GWO shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$57.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Desjardins raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. National Bankshares raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$52.00 to C$58.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 20th. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$66.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$56.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$59.33.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of C$55.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.65. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is C$56.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$53.57.

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 29th were issued a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 58.40%.

Great-West Lifeco declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, August 5th that authorizes the company to repurchase $0.00 in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to buy shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.