Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have issued a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$93.22.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on SLF. UBS Group upgraded Sun Life Financial to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Desjardins set a C$94.00 price target on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$87.00 to C$93.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$98.00 in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 1.5%

TSE SLF opened at C$88.76 on Wednesday. Sun Life Financial has a twelve month low of C$74.56 and a twelve month high of C$91.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a current ratio of 92.19. The stock has a market cap of C$49.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.81, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$85.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$83.94.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported C$1.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of C$9.07 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 15.69% and a net margin of 7.58%. Equities analysts anticipate that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 31st were issued a dividend of $0.92 per share. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 26th. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 65.15%.

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.