Linda Dougherty Purchases 6,740 Shares of Sun Life Financial (TSE:SLF) Stock

Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF) (NYSE:SLF) insider Linda Dougherty purchased 6,740 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of C$97.97 per share, for a total transaction of C$660,317.80. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 13,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$1,320,635.60. The trade was a 100.00% increase in their position.

Linda Dougherty also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, May 13th, Linda Dougherty sold 5,000 shares of Sun Life Financial stock. The shares were sold at an average price of C$97.01, for a total transaction of C$485,050.00.
• On Wednesday, May 13th, Linda Dougherty sold 5,118 shares of Sun Life Financial stock. The stock was sold at an average price of C$96.49, for a total transaction of C$493,835.82.

Sun Life Financial Stock Up 0.7%

SLF stock opened at C$99.03 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is C$91.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$87.86. Sun Life Financial Inc. has a 52-week low of C$77.38 and a 52-week high of C$101.15. The firm has a market cap of C$54.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a PEG ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.73.

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

Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.96 per share. This represents a $3.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 27th. This is an increase from Sun Life Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.92. Sun Life Financial’s dividend payout ratio is currently 67.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SLF. Desjardins set a C$101.00 target price on shares of Sun Life Financial and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. 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 research note on Friday, February 13th. 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 research note on Thursday, May 7th. 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 research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, TD Securities lowered 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 research note on Thursday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of C$101.60.

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.