Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation, three have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$96.67.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SLF. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. TD Securities reduced their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Barclays upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$85.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Desjardins upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$101.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$91.23 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is C$88.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$85.91. The company has a market cap of C$50.53 billion, a PE ratio of 14.83, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49. Sun Life Financial has a 12-month low of C$74.56 and a 12-month high of C$94.76.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported C$1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.67 billion for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 9.74%. Analysts expect that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 57.24%.

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