Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives C$101.60 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twelve analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$102.45.

SLF has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD raised their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$102.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Evercore cut Sun Life Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a C$111.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Monday. Desjardins set a C$101.00 price target on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

Shares of SLF opened at C$111.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 32.51, a current ratio of 6.03 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of C$105.00 and a 200-day moving average of C$94.71. The company has a market cap of C$62.03 billion, a PE ratio of 20.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.79. Sun Life Financial has a one year low of C$77.38 and a one year high of C$114.53.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 EPS for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 12.89% and a net margin of 9.12%.The business had revenue of C$8.73 billion during the quarter. On average, equities research analysts predict that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were paid a $0.96 dividend. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 67.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Helena Janina Pagano sold 17,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$101.32, for a total value of C$1,751,113.56. Following the sale, the insider owned 228 shares in the company, valued at C$23,100.96. This represents a 98.70% decrease in their position. Also, insider Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$97.80, for a total transaction of C$3,423,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,054 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$103,081.20. The trade was a 97.08% decrease in their position. Over the last three months, insiders sold 380,998 shares of company stock valued at $38,271,605. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Sun Life Financial Company Profile

Sun Life Financial is one of Canada’s Big Three life insurance companies along with Great-West Lifeco and Manulife. Sun Life provides insurance, retirement, and wealth-management services to individual and corporate customers in Canada, the United States, and Asia. It also owns MFS Investment Management, a Boston-based asset-management firm. Sun Life generates about a third of its profit from asset-management operations.