Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$88.38.

SLF has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Securities upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$86.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. National Bankshares dropped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$88.00 in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Barclays lowered Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 21st.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.7%

SLF stock opened at C$85.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The stock has a market capitalization of C$48.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average of C$87.53 and a 200-day moving average of C$83.57. Sun Life Financial has a fifty-two week low of C$64.38 and a fifty-two week high of C$91.11.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 30th were paid a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.11%. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 28th. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.87%.

Insider Transactions at Sun Life Financial

In related news, Senior Officer Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 44,199 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$88.17, for a total transaction of C$3,897,025.83. Also, Senior Officer Stephen Peacher sold 80,048 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of C$87.70, for a total value of C$7,020,209.60. Insiders have sold a total of 188,721 shares of company stock valued at $16,554,701 over the last quarter. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.