Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Upgraded by Jefferies Financial Group to “Buy” Rating

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has a C$70.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of C$67.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price target points to a potential upside of 13.34% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the stock. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$66.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. National Bank Financial increased their price objective on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Barclays lifted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$59.00 to C$70.00 in a report on Friday, January 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$64.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Great-West Lifeco has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$67.22.

Great-West Lifeco Stock Performance

Shares of Great-West Lifeco stock traded up C$0.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting C$61.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 657,417 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,464,916. The company has a market cap of C$56.03 billion, a PE ratio of 14.33, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.53. The business has a 50 day moving average price of C$65.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$60.08. Great-West Lifeco has a 12-month low of C$49.54 and a 12-month high of C$68.56.

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 return on equity of 14.81% and a net margin of 16.06%.The company had revenue of C$8.21 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Great-West Lifeco will post 4.4525194 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In other Great-West Lifeco news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total value of C$6,098,259.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 4,916 shares in the company, valued at C$317,131.16. This trade represents a 95.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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. 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.