Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is C$87.00.

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. National Bankshares dropped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$93.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Cormark upgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. CIBC dropped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$94.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada set a C$82.00 price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th.

Sun Life Financial Price Performance

Shares of TSE SLF opened at C$80.57 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is C$81.48 and its 200-day moving average price is C$81.39. Sun Life Financial has a 1-year low of C$64.38 and a 1-year high of C$88.54. The firm has a market capitalization of C$46.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 92.19, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00.

Sun Life Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a $0.84 dividend. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, February 26th. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 48.87%.

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.