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

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$101.60.

A number of research firms have recently commented on SLF. Desjardins set a C$101.00 target price on Sun Life Financial and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$102.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial lowered their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, TD increased their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$102.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of SLF opened at C$109.75 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 33.48, a current ratio of 6.03 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. Sun Life Financial has a 1 year low of C$77.38 and a 1 year high of C$112.05. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of C$99.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$91.48. The firm has a market cap of C$60.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.84.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.73 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 12.98%. On average, equities analysts expect that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.96 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Melissa Jane Kennedy sold 7,366 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$101.49, for a total value of C$747,575.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 13,916 shares in the company, valued at C$1,412,334.84. This trade represents a 34.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, Director Kevin Strain sold 104,744 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$96.99, for a total value of C$10,159,120.56. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 42,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$4,073,580. This represents a 71.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 380,998 shares of company stock worth $38,271,605. 0.03% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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. Sun Life generates about a third of its profit from asset-management operations.