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

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

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Cibc Captl Mkts cut shares of Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$84.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. TD Securities reduced their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$101.00 to C$99.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$98.00 in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded Sun Life Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 7th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.7%

SLF stock opened at C$85.43 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of C$47.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.74. 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. The business’s 50-day moving average is C$83.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$84.06. Sun Life Financial has a fifty-two week low of C$74.56 and a fifty-two week high of C$91.11.

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

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business 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 represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 26th. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. Sun Life Financial’s 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. Sun Life generates about a third of its profit from asset-management operations.