Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Shares Cross Below 200-Day Moving Average – Here’s Why

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) shares passed below its two hundred day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$84.21 and traded as low as C$83.29. Sun Life Financial shares last traded at C$83.75, with a volume of 2,208,251 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on SLF. National Bankshares lowered their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Cibc Captl Mkts cut shares of Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Sun Life Financial to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Sun Life Financial presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of C$91.44.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$83.91 and a 200 day moving average price of C$84.18. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00. The firm has a market capitalization of C$47.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.74.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported C$1.86 earnings per share for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 7.58% and a return on equity of 15.69%. The firm had revenue of C$9.07 billion for the quarter. On average, 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 will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a dividend of $0.92 per share. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 26th. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.4%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 65.15%.

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.