Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as C$68.24 and last traded at C$68.02, with a volume of 157059 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$67.10.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GWO shares. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. National Bankshares raised their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Desjardins boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 15th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Great-West Lifeco to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$62.11.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.2%

The company has a market capitalization of C$61.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.72. The company’s fifty day moving average is C$64.29 and its 200 day moving average is C$57.79.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$1.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 16.06% and a return on equity of 14.81%. The business had revenue of C$8.21 billion for the quarter. Equities research analysts predict that Great-West Lifeco Inc. will post 4.4525194 EPS for the current year.

Great-West Lifeco Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.61 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio is 55.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of Great-West Lifeco stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total transaction of C$6,098,259.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 4,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$317,131.16. The trade was a 95.06% decrease in their position. 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.