Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as C$65.80 and last traded at C$65.78, with a volume of 53522 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$65.26.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GWO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$60.00 in a report on Monday, November 10th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$66.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Desjardins upped their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 15th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$66.00 to C$70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, CIBC increased their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$65.00 to C$67.00 in a research report on Friday, November 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$62.11.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Up 1.1%

The company has a market cap of C$61.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.50, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.69. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of C$61.24 and a 200 day moving average price of C$55.79.

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

Great-West Lifeco Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a $0.61 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. Great-West Lifeco’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 55.34%.

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.