Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Price Target Raised to C$97.00 at CIBC

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) had its price target upped by CIBC from C$96.00 to C$97.00 in a research report report published on Thursday,BayStreet.CA reports.

SLF has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$85.00 to C$96.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. National Bankshares raised Sun Life Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from C$82.00 to C$95.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Cormark increased their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$85.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$90.00 to C$94.00 in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Sun Life Financial has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$86.73.

Sun Life Financial Price Performance

TSE:SLF opened at C$83.54 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is C$85.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$78.37. Sun Life Financial has a 52 week low of C$64.38 and a 52 week high of C$88.54. The stock has a market cap of C$48.16 billion, a PE ratio of 15.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 65.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 53.77.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported C$1.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of C$1.71 by C$0.05. Sun Life Financial had a return on equity of 13.65% and a net margin of 9.90%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Sun Life Financial will post 6.9230769 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th were given a dividend of $0.84 per share. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 27th. This represents a $3.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.02%. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is 61.36%.

Insider Transactions at Sun Life Financial

In other Sun Life Financial news, Senior Officer Linda Dougherty bought 5,800 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were acquired at an average price of C$84.83 per share, for a total transaction of C$492,014.00. Also, Director Kevin Strain sold 85,943 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$84.71, for a total transaction of C$7,280,231.53. Company insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

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.