Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) Stock Price Expected to Rise, CIBC Analyst Says

Great-West Lifeco (TSE:GWO) had its target price raised by research analysts at CIBC from C$67.00 to C$73.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. CIBC’s target price suggests a potential upside of 8.53% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$53.00 to C$60.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. UBS Group upgraded Great-West Lifeco to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Desjardins raised their price objective on Great-West Lifeco from C$55.00 to C$60.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 15th. Barclays boosted their target price on Great-West Lifeco from C$58.00 to C$59.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Great-West Lifeco from C$60.00 to C$66.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Great-West Lifeco currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$64.00.

Great-West Lifeco Trading Down 0.2%

GWO stock opened at C$67.26 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is C$64.80 and its 200 day moving average is C$58.04. The stock has a market cap of C$61.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.72. Great-West Lifeco has a 1-year low of C$44.89 and a 1-year high of C$68.56.

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

Insider Activity at Great-West Lifeco

In related news, Director Edmund Francis Murphy sold 94,532 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$64.51, for a total transaction of C$6,098,259.32. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 4,916 shares in the company, valued at C$317,131.16. This represents a 95.06% decrease in their position. 70.70% of the stock is currently owned by 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.