Brokerages Set Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Price Target at C$77.18

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$77.18.

SLF has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. CIBC increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$77.00 to C$80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$70.00 to C$80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$83.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Desjardins lifted their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$75.00 to C$77.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Finally, Evercore boosted their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$76.00 to C$78.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd.

Sun Life Financial Price Performance

TSE:SLF opened at C$72.83 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 6.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 78.47. The business’s 50-day moving average price is C$72.32 and its 200 day moving average price is C$69.91. Sun Life Financial has a 52-week low of C$61.84 and a 52-week high of C$74.94. The firm has a market cap of C$42.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.85, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.96.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The financial services provider reported C$1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of C$1.59 by C$0.09. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 10.26% and a return on equity of 13.98%. The company had revenue of C$18.68 billion for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9056785 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.28%. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 59.32%.

Insider Transactions at Sun Life Financial

In other news, Senior Officer Daniel Fishbein sold 16,000 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$74.45, for a total transaction of C$1,191,120.00. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Sun Life Financial Company Profile

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.