Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Sets New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) hit a new 52-week high on Thursday after TD raised their price target on the stock from C$102.00 to C$107.00. TD currently has a buy rating on the stock. Sun Life Financial traded as high as C$20.00 and last traded at C$95.69, with a volume of 1029130 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at C$99.53.

SLF has been the subject of a number of other reports. National Bank Financial upgraded Sun Life Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a C$109.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, April 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$95.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report 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 research report on Friday, February 13th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a research report on Friday, May 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$100.40.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 74.49, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 84,866.00. The firm has a market cap of C$52.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$90.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$87.33.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of C$8.73 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 14.68% and a net margin of 9.74%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.92 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $3.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 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.