Mei Dong Sells 39,400 Shares of Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Stock

Great-West Lifeco Inc. (TSE:GWO) Director Mei Dong sold 39,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$76.33, for a total transaction of C$3,007,402.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$207,693.93. This represents a 93.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock.

Great-West Lifeco Price Performance

Shares of GWO opened at C$76.41 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of C$69.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.59. Great-West Lifeco Inc. has a twelve month low of C$49.71 and a twelve month high of C$77.04. The company has a quick ratio of 22.18, a current ratio of 6.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 29.59. The company has a 50 day moving average of C$67.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of C$65.36.

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$1.37 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$8.37 billion during the quarter. Great-West Lifeco had a net margin of 12.86% and a return on equity of 15.17%. As a group, analysts predict that Great-West Lifeco Inc. will post 4.4525194 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Great-West Lifeco Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. This is a positive change from Great-West Lifeco’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.61. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 3rd. Great-West Lifeco’s payout ratio is 53.76%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on GWO shares. Scotia raised their target price on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$78.00 to C$83.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$65.00 to C$73.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Desjardins raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$71.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$68.00 to C$70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$70.00 to C$76.00 in a report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$77.18.

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.