Updating your Conservative-Growth Payers: Sun Life Financial Inc.

Article Excerpt

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL INC. $64 is a buy. The stock (Toronto symbol SLF; Conservative-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 585.6 million; Market cap: $37.5 billion; Dividend yield: 3.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.sunlife.ca) lets investors tap Canada’s third-largest life insurance company by market cap after Manulife (No. 1) and Great-West Lifeco (No. 2). Sun Life has $1.30 trillion in assets under management and administration. The insurer raised its quarterly dividend with the December 2019 payment. Investors now receive $0.55 a share, up 5.0% from $0.525. The annual rate of $2.20 yields 3.4%. The company’s payout ratio in the latest quarter was 38%. That’s below its medium-term goal of 40% to 50%, suggesting there’s room for more increases. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian financial regulators have instructed federally regulated firms, including Sun Life, to postpone their planned dividend increases. However, it’s likely dividend hikes will resume some time later this year as the pandemic eases. On July 1, 2021, Sun…