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

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$92.11.

SLF has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$83.00 in a research note on Friday, January 9th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Desjardins set a C$94.00 price target on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Cibc Captl Mkts downgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, National Bankshares dropped their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 6th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$87.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The company’s fifty day moving average price is C$84.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$83.81. The firm has a market capitalization of C$48.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.77. Sun Life Financial has a 12 month low of C$74.56 and a 12 month high of C$91.11.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced 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 return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 7.58%.The company had revenue of C$9.07 billion during the quarter. On average, research analysts anticipate that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st were paid a $0.92 dividend. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 26th. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 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.