Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$96.44.

A number of equities analysts have commented on SLF shares. Desjardins lifted their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$101.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce increased their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$96.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reduced their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$83.00 in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Finally, TD Securities dropped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 12th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.2%

Sun Life Financial stock opened at C$87.34 on Thursday. Sun Life Financial has a 1 year low of C$74.56 and a 1 year high of C$94.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average is C$88.04 and its 200-day moving average is C$85.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a current ratio of 2.78. The company has a market cap of C$48.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.76.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported C$1.96 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.67 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 14.68%. On average, equities analysts expect that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 57.24%.

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.