Helena Janina Pagano Sells 17,283 Shares of Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Stock

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) insider Helena Janina Pagano sold 17,283 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$101.32, for a total transaction of C$1,751,113.56. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 228 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$23,100.96. This represents a 98.70% decrease in their position.

Sun Life Financial Stock Down 0.1%

TSE:SLF opened at C$99.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of C$54.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a fifty-two week low of C$77.38 and a fifty-two week high of C$101.94. The firm’s 50 day moving average is C$94.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$88.88.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$8.73 billion for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 12.98%. Research analysts forecast that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.96 per share. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 27th. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 67.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SLF has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their price target 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. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$84.00 to C$85.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Desjardins set a C$101.00 target price on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, TD raised their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$102.00 to C$107.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$101.60.

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.