Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$86.73.

A number of equities analysts have commented on SLF shares. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$81.00 to C$87.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$97.00 in a research report on Thursday. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. National Bank Financial raised shares of Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, National Bankshares raised shares of Sun Life Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the company from C$82.00 to C$95.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$83.81 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of C$48.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. Sun Life Financial has a 12-month low of C$64.38 and a 12-month high of C$88.54. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 65.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 53.77. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of C$85.17 and a 200 day moving average price of C$78.49.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported C$1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$1.71 by C$0.05. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.90% and a return on equity of 13.65%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th were given a dividend of $0.84 per share. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is presently 61.36%.

Insider Activity

In other Sun Life Financial news, Director Kevin Strain sold 85,943 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$84.71, for a total value of C$7,280,231.53. Also, Senior Officer Linda Dougherty bought 5,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$84.83 per share, for a total transaction of C$492,014.00. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.