Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Hits New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as C$18.40 and last traded at C$80.70, with a volume of 1730150 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$82.83.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on SLF shares. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Securities lowered their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$101.00 to C$99.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. CIBC reduced their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Sun Life Financial to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sun Life Financial has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$91.44.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of C$45.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.31, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.83. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is C$84.33 and its 200-day moving average price is C$84.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a current ratio of 92.19.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported C$1.86 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$9.07 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 7.58%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be paid a $0.92 dividend. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 26th. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.6%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 65.15%.

About Sun Life Financial

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.