Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$86.73.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$87.00 in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Cormark boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$85.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$81.00 to C$87.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$90.00 to C$94.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 14th.

Sun Life Financial Price Performance

TSE:SLF opened at C$82.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 53.77, a current ratio of 65.29 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of C$85.01 and a 200-day moving average price of C$78.80. Sun Life Financial has a 1-year low of C$64.38 and a 1-year high of C$88.54. The firm has a market cap of C$47.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported C$1.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of C$1.71 by C$0.05. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.90% and a return on equity of 13.65%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.59 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 27th were paid a dividend of $0.84 per share. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 27th. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Senior Officer Linda Dougherty purchased 5,800 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$84.83 per share, for a total transaction of C$492,014.00. Also, Director Kevin Strain sold 85,943 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$84.71, for a total transaction of C$7,280,231.53. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.