Brokerages Set Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) PT at C$101.60

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$105.09.

A number of research analysts have weighed in on SLF shares. TD raised their price target on 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. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a research note on Friday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a report on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial decreased their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$98.00 to C$111.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.4%

Sun Life Financial stock opened at C$114.68 on Friday. The company has a market cap of C$63.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of C$105.69 and a 200-day moving average of C$95.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 32.51, a current ratio of 6.03 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. Sun Life Financial has a one year low of C$77.38 and a one year high of C$115.13.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 12.89% and a net margin of 9.12%.The business had revenue of C$8.73 billion for the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a $0.96 dividend. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 67.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$97.80, for a total transaction of C$3,423,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,054 shares in the company, valued at C$103,081.20. The trade was a 97.08% decrease in their position. Also, insider Helena Janina Pagano sold 17,283 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$101.32, for a total transaction of C$1,751,113.56. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 228 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$23,100.96. The trade was a 98.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 380,998 shares of company stock worth $38,271,605. Corporate insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.