Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives C$96.44 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$96.44.

SLF has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Desjardins raised their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$101.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$96.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$97.00 to C$103.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$86.37 on Friday. Sun Life Financial has a 12-month low of C$74.56 and a 12-month high of C$94.76. The company has a market capitalization of C$47.84 billion, a PE ratio of 14.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of C$88.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$85.03. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 2.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49.

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

Sun Life Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. 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.