Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Hits New 1-Year High – What’s Next?

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as C$103.14 and last traded at C$102.81, with a volume of 342457 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$101.42.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

SLF has been the topic of a number of research reports. TD increased their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$102.00 to C$107.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$93.00 to C$96.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. National Bank Financial reduced their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. TD Securities reduced their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$104.00 to C$102.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$95.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$101.60.

Sun Life Financial Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is C$95.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$89.43. The company has a market capitalization of C$57.07 billion, a PE ratio of 19.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73.

Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported C$1.89 EPS for the quarter. Sun Life Financial had a net margin of 9.12% and a return on equity of 12.98%. The company had revenue of C$8.73 billion for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Sun Life Financial Inc. will post 6.9230769 earnings per share for the current year.

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be given a $0.96 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $3.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.7%. This is a boost from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sun Life Financial’s payout ratio is currently 67.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Sun Life Financial news, Director Kevin Strain sold 104,744 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$96.99, for a total value of C$10,159,120.56. Following the sale, the director directly owned 42,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$4,073,580. This represents a 71.38% decrease in their position. Also, insider Linda Dougherty sold 3,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$101.40, for a total transaction of C$354,900.00. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 192,686 shares of company stock worth $18,837,806. Corporate 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. Sun Life generates about a third of its profit from asset-management operations.