Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Sets New 52-Week High – Time to Buy?

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as C$20.25 and last traded at C$98.25, with a volume of 298700 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$98.30.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on SLF shares. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on 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. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce boosted their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$95.00 to C$102.00 in a research note on Friday, May 8th. National Bank Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$109.00 to C$108.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. TD increased their price target 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on shares of Sun Life Financial from C$103.00 to C$115.00 in a report on Friday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$101.60.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.4%

The stock has a market capitalization of C$54.67 billion, a PE ratio of 18.37, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$91.38 and its 200-day moving average is C$87.78.

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

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.96 per share. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 27th. Sun Life Financial’s dividend 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 company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$96.99, for a total transaction of C$10,159,120.56. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 42,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately C$4,073,580. This represents a 71.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider Linda Dougherty sold 5,118 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$96.49, for a total transaction of C$493,835.82. Insiders sold 129,537 shares of company stock valued at $12,561,217 over the last ninety days. 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.