Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$91.44.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Cibc Captl Mkts downgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Desjardins set a C$94.00 price target on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group raised shares of Sun Life Financial to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a report on Monday, November 10th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$86.00 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is C$83.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$83.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a current ratio of 92.19. Sun Life Financial has a 1 year low of C$74.56 and a 1 year high of C$91.11. The firm has a market cap of C$47.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.29, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.74.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported C$1.86 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$9.07 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 7.58%. Analysts predict that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be given a $0.92 dividend. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 26th. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.3%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is presently 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.