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

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$96.44.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SLF. Scotiabank boosted their target price 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 report on Friday, February 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Desjardins upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$101.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, TD Securities reduced their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 12th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.2%

SLF stock opened at C$87.34 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$88.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of C$85.66. The company has a market capitalization of C$48.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.76. Sun Life Financial has a twelve month low of C$74.56 and a twelve month high of C$94.76.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported C$1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.74% and a return on equity of 14.68%. The firm had revenue of C$8.67 billion for the quarter. On average, equities research analysts predict that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.92 per share. This represents a $3.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.