Insider Selling: Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Insider Sells C$1,139,836.60 in Stock

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) insider Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 11,740 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$97.09, for a total value of C$1,139,836.60. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 1,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$102,332.86. The trade was a 91.76% decrease in their position.

Jacques Jr. Goulet also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, May 14th, Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 35,000 shares of Sun Life Financial stock. The stock was sold at an average price of C$97.80, for a total value of C$3,423,000.00.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of Sun Life Financial stock opened at C$99.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of C$54.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of C$91.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of C$87.86. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a 12-month low of C$77.38 and a 12-month high of C$101.15.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$8.73 billion during the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 9.12%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.96 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 27th. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.9%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 67.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SLF. Desjardins set a C$101.00 target price on Sun Life Financial and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a research report on Friday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial cut their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$96.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sun Life Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$101.60.

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.