Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Hits New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as C$19.20 and last traded at C$87.19, with a volume of 86180 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at C$87.47.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SLF. National Bankshares dropped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. CIBC upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Desjardins set a C$94.00 target price on Sun Life Financial and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Cibc Captl Mkts lowered shares of Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. One 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 given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sun Life Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$92.11.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of C$84.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$83.72. The firm has a market cap of C$47.82 billion, a PE ratio of 16.35, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.77.

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

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st were paid a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 26th. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio 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. Sun Life generates about a third of its profit from asset-management operations.