SLF vs. MFC, L, GWO, PRU, CIA, ALS, STC, CNC, PIH, and ROOT
Should you be buying Sun Life Financial stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Sun Life Financial include Manulife Financial (MFC), Loblaw Companies (L), Great-West Lifeco (GWO), Perseus Mining (PRU), Champion Iron (CIA), Altius Minerals (ALS), Sangoma Technologies (STC), Canada Nickel (CNC), 8002 (PIH.TO) (PIH), and Roots (ROOT). These companies are all part of the "insurance" industry.
Sun Life Financial vs. Its Competitors
Manulife Financial (TSE:MFC) and Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) are both large-cap financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends, media sentiment, risk and earnings.
Manulife Financial has a net margin of 12.52% compared to Sun Life Financial's net margin of 7.58%. Sun Life Financial's return on equity of 15.69% beat Manulife Financial's return on equity.
In the previous week, Sun Life Financial had 6 more articles in the media than Manulife Financial. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Sun Life Financial and 1 mentions for Manulife Financial. Sun Life Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.81 beat Manulife Financial's score of 0.53 indicating that Sun Life Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Manulife Financial has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sun Life Financial. Sun Life Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Manulife Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
60.2% of Manulife Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of Sun Life Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Manulife Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Sun Life Financial shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Manulife Financial presently has a consensus target price of C$48.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.86%. Sun Life Financial has a consensus target price of C$86.89, suggesting a potential downside of 1.49%. Given Manulife Financial's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Manulife Financial is more favorable than Sun Life Financial.
Manulife Financial has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sun Life Financial has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Manulife Financial pays an annual dividend of C$1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Sun Life Financial pays an annual dividend of C$3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Manulife Financial pays out 49.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sun Life Financial pays out 48.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Sun Life Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Sun Life Financial received 83 more outperform votes than Manulife Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.71% of users gave Manulife Financial an outperform vote while only 61.83% of users gave Sun Life Financial an outperform vote.
Summary
Sun Life Financial beats Manulife Financial on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SLF and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of TSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Sun Life Financial Competitors List
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This page (TSE:SLF) was last updated on 6/12/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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