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How to buy Sun Life Financial stock | $45.34
Own Sun Life Financial stock in just a few minutes.
Sun Life Financial Inc is an insurance—diversified business based in the US. Sun Life Financial shares (SLF) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Sun Life Financial employs 22,719 staff and has a market cap (total outstanding shares value) of USD$26.5 billion.
How to buy shares in Sun Life Financial
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Sun Life Financial. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: SLF. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Sun Life Financial reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$45.34, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Sun Life Financial, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Sun Life Financial. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- SLF shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is SLF stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short SLF shares?
- Is SLF suitable for ethical investing?
- Are SLF shares over-valued?
- Sun Life Financial's financials
- How volatile are SLF shares?
- Does Sun Life Financial pay a dividend?
- Other common questions
Sun Life Financial share price
Use our graph to track the performance of SLF stocks over time.Sun Life Financial shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-11-27.
| Latest market close | USD$45.34 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | USD$23.6367 - USD$48.177 |
| 50-day moving average | USD$42.8891 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$39.8783 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$45.65 |
| PE ratio | 17.1537 |
| Dividend yield | USD$1.68 (3.66%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$2.642 |
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Is it a good time to buy Sun Life Financial stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Sun Life Financial price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the close of $45.34 from 2020-11-16
| 1 week (2020-11-25) | -0.02% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2020-11-06) | 4.81% |
| 3 months (2020-09-04) | 8.89% |
| 6 months (2020-06-05) | 15.49% |
| 1 year (2019-12-05) | 2.30% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2018-12-04) | 26.01% |
| 3 years (2017-12-05) | 11.90% |
| 5 years (2015-12-04) | 36.77% |
Is Sun Life Financial under- or over-valued?
Valuing Sun Life Financial stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Sun Life Financial's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Sun Life Financial's P/E ratio
Sun Life Financial's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 17x. In other words, Sun Life Financial shares trade at around 17x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
Sun Life Financial's PEG ratio
Sun Life Financial's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.65. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Sun Life Financial's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Sun Life Financial financials
| Gross profit TTM | USD$8.6 billion |
|---|---|
| Return on assets TTM | 0.7% |
| Return on equity TTM | 9.92% |
| Profit margin | 6.15% |
| Book value | $26.639 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$26.5 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Sun Life Financial shares
There are currently 989,992 Sun Life Financial shares held short by investors – that's known as Sun Life Financial's "short interest". This figure is 57.1% down from 2.3 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Sun Life Financial shares can be evaluated.
Sun Life Financial's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Sun Life Financial's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Sun Life Financial shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Sun Life Financial shares traded daily (recently around 490095.04950495). Sun Life Financial's SIR currently stands at 2.02. In other words for every 100,000 Sun Life Financial shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2020 shares are currently held short.
However Sun Life Financial's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Sun Life Financial shares, or, against the total number of tradable Sun Life Financial shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Sun Life Financial's short interest could be expressed as 0% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Sun Life Financial shares in existence, roughly 0 shares are currently held short) or 0% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Sun Life Financial shares, roughly 0 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Sun Life Financial.
Find out more about how you can short Sun Life Financial stock.
Sun Life Financial's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Sun Life Financial.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Sun Life Financial's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 16.27
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Sun Life Financial's overall score of 16.27 (as at 01/01/2019) is excellent – landing it in it in the 18th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Sun Life Financial is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
Sun Life Financial's environmental score
Environmental score: 1.75/100
Sun Life Financial's social score
Social score: 8.12/100
Sun Life Financial's governance score
Governance score: 5.4/100
Sun Life Financial's controversy score
Controversy score: 2/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Sun Life Financial scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Sun Life Financial has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
Sun Life Financial Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.
| Total ESG score | 16.27 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 17.68 |
| Environmental score | 1.75 |
| Social score | 8.12 |
| Governance score | 5.4 |
| Level of controversy | 2 |
Sun Life Financial share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 30.85% of net profits
Recently Sun Life Financial has paid out, on average, around 30.85% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.66% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Sun Life Financial shareholders could enjoy a 3.66% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Sun Life Financial's case, that would currently equate to about $1.68 per share.
While Sun Life Financial's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Sun Life Financial may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.
Sun Life Financial's most recent dividend payout was on 31 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 24 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Sun Life Financial share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Sun Life Financial's shares have ranged in value from as little as $23.6367 up to $48.177. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Sun Life Financial's is 1.0393. This would suggest that Sun Life Financial's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Sun Life Financial overview
Sun Life Financial Inc., a financial services company, provides insurance, wealth, and asset management solutions to individuals and corporate clients in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. It offers life, health, wellness, disability, critical illness, stop-loss, and long-term care insurance products. The company also provides mutual funds, segregated funds, annuities, and guaranteed investment products; and financial and retirement planning services, as well as pooled funds, institutional portfolios, and pension funds. It distributes its products through direct sales agents, managing general agents, independent general agents, financial intermediaries, broker-dealers, banks, pension and benefits consultants, and other third-party marketing organizations. The company was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
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