Buy Sun Life, hold on to Manulife

Article Excerpt

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $35.32 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 606.0 million; Market cap: $21.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.sunlife.ca) sells savings, retirement, pension and life insurance products to individuals and corporations. The company mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., but it has expanded into Asia, China and India. Sun Life has $590 billion of assets under management. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Sun Life’s earnings per share jumped 69.0%, to $0.71 from $0.42. Revenue rose 18.5%, to $3.7 billion from $3.1 billion. The improved results mostly came from higher sales of individual and group insurance in Canada and the U.S., as well as individual insurance in Asia. In addition, the value of the assets Sun Life manages rose, which pushed up its fee income. The company recently completed the sale of its riskier and money-losing U.S. annuity business, which offers annuities that guarantee minimum long-term returns even if markets fall…