Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$91.44.

A number of brokerages recently commented on SLF. Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. National Bankshares decreased their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a report on Thursday, November 6th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$95.00 in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Barclays increased their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$84.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cibc Captl Mkts cut Sun Life Financial from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th.

Sun Life Financial Stock Down 0.3%

SLF stock opened at C$85.41 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is C$83.78 and its 200 day moving average price is C$83.99. The firm has a market capitalization of C$47.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.18, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.74. Sun Life Financial has a fifty-two week low of C$74.56 and a fifty-two week 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.

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

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 26th. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.88. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. 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.