Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Shares of Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF - Get Free Report) NYSE: SLF have received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is C$86.89.

SLF has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$88.00 in a report on Monday, May 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$90.00 in a research report on Monday, April 21st. CIBC cut their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$89.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$86.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Cormark raised shares of Sun Life Financial from a "hold" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th.

Sun Life Financial Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of TSE:SLF opened at C$89.10 on Friday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is C$83.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$83.18. Sun Life Financial has a 12 month low of C$64.38 and a 12 month high of C$89.58. The firm has a market cap of C$50.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.44, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.88 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 28th. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. Sun Life Financial's dividend payout ratio is presently 48.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Senior Officer Daniel Fishbein sold 37,662 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$87.60, for a total transaction of C$3,299,191.20. Also, Senior Officer Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 26,812 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$87.21, for a total value of C$2,338,274.52. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 144,522 shares of company stock valued at $12,657,675. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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