Bank of New York Mellon Corp Buys 33,931 Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (NYSE:SLF)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (NYSE:SLF) (TSE:SLF) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 559,262 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 33,931 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.09% of Sun Life Financial worth $33,187,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Sun Life Financial by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 8,643 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 181 shares during the period. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. boosted its position in shares of Sun Life Financial by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. now owns 47,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,843,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the period. Five Oceans Advisors raised its stake in Sun Life Financial by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Five Oceans Advisors now owns 3,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Sun Life Financial by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,478 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,291,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Addison Advisors LLC raised its stake in Sun Life Financial by 124.9% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 650 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. 52.26% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on SLF. National Bank Financial raised Sun Life Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Sun Life Financial from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Cormark raised Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE SLF opened at $55.62 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $57.45 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.75. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a 12-month low of $46.41 and a 12-month high of $62.85. The company has a market cap of $31.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.48, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.03.

Sun Life Financial (NYSE:SLF) (TSE:SLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The financial services provider reported $1.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.30. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 8.08% and a return on equity of 16.86%. Sell-side analysts predict that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 5.19 EPS for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 26th will be paid a dividend of $0.5876 per share. This represents a $2.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 60.16%.

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial Inc, a financial services company, provides savings, retirement, and pension products worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Asset Management, Canada, U.S., Asia, and Corporate. It offers various insurance products, such as term and permanent life; personal health, which includes prescription drugs, dental, and vision care; critical illness; long-term care; and disability, as well as reinsurance.