Manjit Singh Sells 188,312 Shares of Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Stock

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) insider Manjit Singh sold 188,312 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$103.20, for a total value of C$19,433,798.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 547 shares in the company, valued at C$56,450.40. This represents a 99.71% decrease in their position.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of TSE SLF traded up C$1.59 during trading on Thursday, reaching C$106.06. The company had a trading volume of 924,292 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,059,113. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$96.65 and its 200-day moving average price is C$90.00. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a 12 month low of C$77.38 and a 12 month high of C$106.52. The stock has a market cap of C$58.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.84.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$8.73 billion for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 9.12%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid 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 is Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on SLF. National Bank Financial lowered their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$102.00 in a report on Friday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$101.60.

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.