Brokerages Set Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) Target Price at C$85.50

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is C$86.89.

Several analysts have commented on the stock. CIBC decreased their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$89.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$90.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Cormark upgraded shares of Sun Life Financial from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$86.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$82.00 to C$88.00 in a research note on Monday, May 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sun Life Financial news, Senior Officer Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 26,812 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

Sun Life Financial Trading Down 0.2%

Sun Life Financial stock opened at C$87.94 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of C$81.14 and a 200 day moving average price of C$82.48. The company has a market capitalization of C$50.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. Sun Life Financial has a 52 week low of C$64.38 and a 52 week high of C$88.60. 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 company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 30th will be given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 28th. This is a positive change from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.87%.

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.