Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Director Sells 101,580 Shares of Stock

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) Director Kevin Strain sold 101,580 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$110.86, for a total value of C$11,261,158.80. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 42,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$4,656,120. The trade was a 70.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock.

Kevin Strain also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, September 3rd, Kevin Strain sold 1 shares of Sun Life Financial stock. The stock was sold at an average price of C$111.37, for a total transaction of C$111.37.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.7%

TSE SLF traded up C$0.80 on Friday, reaching C$112.09. 1,405,677 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,986,889. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a 12 month low of C$79.36 and a 12 month high of C$118.99. The company has a market cap of C$62.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.00, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.70. The company has a fifty day moving average price of C$112.80 and a 200-day moving average price of C$101.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 34.34, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a current ratio of 27.38.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The financial services provider reported C$2.02 EPS for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 13.89% and a net margin of 8.81%.The firm had revenue of C$9.05 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 29th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 29th will be paid a dividend of $0.96 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 26th. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 62.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore cut Sun Life Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a C$111.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, July 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$98.00 to C$119.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$99.00 to C$105.00 in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$131.00 to C$141.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$98.00 in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$116.00.

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.