Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Price Target Raised to C$122.00

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) had its price target increased by Desjardins from C$120.00 to C$122.00 in a research report report published on Monday,BayStreet.CA reports. Desjardins currently has a buy rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore cut shares of Sun Life Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a C$111.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, July 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$131.00 to C$141.00 in a research report on Monday. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce lifted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$102.00 to C$116.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$98.00 to C$111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$116.00.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

SLF opened at C$111.90 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of C$111.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$98.94. The company has a market capitalization of C$61.96 billion, a PE ratio of 18.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.80. Sun Life Financial has a 1 year low of C$79.15 and a 1 year high of C$118.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 34.34, a current ratio of 27.38 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported C$2.02 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$9.05 billion for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 13.89% and a net margin of 8.81%. Research analysts expect that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were issued a dividend of $0.96 per share. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is currently 62.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Linda Dougherty sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$101.40, for a total value of C$354,900.00. Also, insider Manjit Singh sold 188,312 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$103.20, for a total transaction of C$19,433,798.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 547 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$56,450.40. This represents a 99.71% decrease in their position. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 216,461 shares of company stock valued at $22,287,387. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.