Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Upgraded by National Bankshares to “Outperform” Rating

National Bankshares upgraded shares of Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning,BayStreet.CA reports. The brokerage currently has C$95.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their previous target price of C$82.00.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on SLF. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$85.00 to C$96.00 in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Sun Life Financial from C$78.00 to C$82.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Cormark lifted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$85.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$81.00 to C$87.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, CIBC raised their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$90.00 to C$96.00 in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sun Life Financial currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of C$86.64.

Sun Life Financial Price Performance

Shares of SLF stock opened at C$84.41 on Wednesday. Sun Life Financial has a 1 year low of C$64.38 and a 1 year high of C$88.54. The company has a current ratio of 65.29, a quick ratio of 84,866.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 53.77. The firm’s 50 day moving average is C$84.96 and its 200-day moving average is C$77.03. The firm has a market capitalization of C$48.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.99, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 27th were issued a $0.84 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 27th. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. This represents a $3.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.98%. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.36%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Kevin Strain sold 85,943 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$84.71, for a total transaction of C$7,280,231.53. Also, Senior Officer Linda Dougherty acquired 5,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was acquired at an average price of C$84.83 per share, with a total value of C$492,014.00. 0.03% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.