Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Share Price Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF)’s stock price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of C$85.20 and traded as high as C$87.63. Sun Life Financial shares last traded at C$87.34, with a volume of 1,147,527 shares.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$96.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of 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. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$97.00 to C$103.00 in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Securities dropped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sun Life Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of C$96.44.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of C$48.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.15, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of C$88.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of C$85.26.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported C$1.96 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm 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%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Sun Life Financial Inc. 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid 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 dividend yield of 4.2%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 57.24%.

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.