Great-West Lifeco Inc. (GWO) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 3rd

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 given 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 is Monday, March 3rd. This is a boost from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.56.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of GWO traded up C$0.33 during midday trading on Friday, hitting C$53.74. 6,165,987 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,611,869. Great-West Lifeco has a 1 year low of C$38.44 and a 1 year high of C$53.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$48.62 and its 200-day moving average is C$47.27. The stock has a market capitalization of C$50.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.84.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GWO has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$45.00 to C$46.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. CIBC upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from C$56.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Friday, February 7th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded Great-West Lifeco from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$51.00 to C$53.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$52.22.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.