# Sun Life Financial (SLF.TO)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/SLF.TO

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:34:01.142Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2026.

Listing currency: CAD. Reporting currency: CAD.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: CAD 111.46 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low CAD 58.95 per share, central CAD 73.69 per share, high CAD 98.25 per share. Buy at or below the central value CAD 73.69 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:34:01.142Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 8.6% at the stated quote. About 8.6% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; CA 10-year bond 3.8% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 10

- Required profitable years: 8

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 0.14×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: CAD 2.5B

- FY2017: CAD 2.1B

- FY2018: CAD 2.5B

- FY2019: CAD 2.6B

- FY2020: CAD 2.4B

- FY2021: CAD 3.9B

- FY2022: CAD 3.1B

- FY2023: CAD 3.1B

- FY2024: CAD 3.0B

- FY2025: CAD 3.5B

### moat: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 11.3%

- Required median return: 10.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: No

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: 9.8%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 11.3%

- FY2017: 9.6%

- FY2018: 10.6%

- FY2019: 11.2%

- FY2020: 9.8%

- FY2021: 15.0%

- FY2022: 11.1%

- FY2023: 13.1%

- FY2024: 11.7%

- FY2025: 13.8%

### economics: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 9.6%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: CAD 35.59

- Ending book value per share: CAD 47.34

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2017: 7.6%

- FY2018: 13.7%

- FY2019: 6.7%

- FY2020: 10.0%

- FY2021: 13.4%

- FY2022: 10.9%

- FY2023: -7.2%

- FY2024: 20.2%

- FY2025: 7.7%

- LTM to Jun 2026: 14.7%

### management: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity

- book per share gain below retained common earnings per share

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: -0.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -0.8%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -0.8%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -0.8%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 0.80×

- Book value created per share: CAD 9.81

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: CAD 12.26

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 100

- FY2017: 99

- FY2018: 98

- FY2019: 95

- FY2020: 96

- FY2021: 96

- FY2022: 96

- FY2023: 96

- FY2024: 94

- FY2025: 92

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

- [Lee Ainslie](https://gigainvestors.com/mc): tracked 13F investor; follow the investor page for holding quarter and amounts.

## Price story

The price is 1.6 times annual sales · "Sun Life's second-quarter profit rises on strong Asia unit performance" (ca.finance.yahoo.com, Aug 2025) · net income +3.2%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:58.786Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price is 1.6 times annual sales

- 2025-08-08: Sun Life shares fall as Medicaid uncertainty prompts US dental forecast revision ([finance.yahoo.com](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sun-life-shares-fall-medicaid-151559410.html))

### Net income · FY2026

net income +3.2%; source https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1097362/000109736226000010/slf-20251231.htm; observed 2026-02-12.

- FY2017: CAD 2.1B 

- FY2018: CAD 2.5B 

- FY2019: CAD 2.6B 

- FY2020: CAD 2.4B 

- FY2021: CAD 3.9B 

- FY2022: CAD 3.1B 

- FY2023: CAD 3.1B 

- FY2024: CAD 3.0B 

- FY2025: CAD 3.5B 

- FY2026: CAD 3.6B 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance diversified; annual sales are CAD 38.4 billion.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1097362/000109736226000010/slf-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-12); FY2025: revenue 38447000000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SLF.TO: Sun Life Financial Inc., a financial services company, provides asset management, wealth, insurance and health solutions to individual and institutional customers in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Bermuda. It offers various insurance products, such as term and permanent life; personal health, which includes prescription drugs, dental, and vision care; critical illness; long-term care; and disability. The company also provides investments products, such as mutual funds, segregated funds, annuities, and guaranteed investment products; financial planning services; and asset management products, including pooled funds, institutional portfolios and pension funds. The company was formerly known as Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. and changed its name to Sun Life Financial Inc. in July 2003. Sun Life Financial Inc. was founded in 1871 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

### Why customers stay

It earns 11.3% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-12); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.11318090726908363],[2017,0.09627704851933157],[2018,0.10638656880114739],[2019,0.11188990512009574],[2020,0.09824676120805918],[2021,0.14950216614729803],[2022,0.11147540983606558],[2023,0.13086252226274278],[2024,0.11703066825317622],[2025,0.13762486126526083]]; median 0.11253540619458968. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back CAD 1.7 billion of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-12); Dividend observations: [[2016,1074000000],[2017,1155000000],[2018,1227000000],[2019,1318000000],[2020,1360000000],[2021,1428000000],[2022,1671000000],[2023,1882000000],[2024,1962000000],[2025,2064000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1097362/000109736226000010/slf-20251231.htm (filed 2026-02-12); FY2025: cash repurchases 1707000000 CAD.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.1% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SLF.TO SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.051000000000000004 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 1.6 times annual sales.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-02-12); Closing price 111.46 CAD; reporting-to-trading FX 1; FY2025 annual sales per share 67.92756183745583; price multiple 1.6408656071995213. FY2025 cash earnings/share 4.362544169611307. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (CAD per share)

- 2016-10: CAD 44.89 per share

- 2016-11: CAD 51.58 per share

- 2016-12: CAD 51.55 per share

- 2017-01: CAD 51.36 per share

- 2017-02: CAD 48.20 per share

- 2017-03: CAD 48.56 per share

- 2017-04: CAD 48.21 per share

- 2017-05: CAD 44.35 per share

- 2017-06: CAD 46.36 per share

- 2017-07: CAD 47.78 per share

- 2017-08: CAD 47.95 per share

- 2017-09: CAD 49.69 per share

- 2017-10: CAD 50.25 per share

- 2017-11: CAD 50.98 per share

- 2017-12: CAD 51.88 per share

- 2018-01: CAD 53.37 per share

- 2018-02: CAD 52.86 per share

- 2018-03: CAD 52.91 per share

- 2018-04: CAD 53.00 per share

- 2018-05: CAD 53.59 per share

- 2018-06: CAD 52.83 per share

- 2018-07: CAD 53.20 per share

- 2018-08: CAD 51.87 per share

- 2018-09: CAD 51.35 per share

- 2018-10: CAD 48.21 per share

- 2018-11: CAD 49.00 per share

- 2018-12: CAD 45.29 per share

- 2019-01: CAD 47.40 per share

- 2019-02: CAD 49.82 per share

- 2019-03: CAD 51.34 per share

- 2019-04: CAD 55.66 per share

- 2019-05: CAD 52.46 per share

- 2019-06: CAD 54.23 per share

- 2019-07: CAD 54.84 per share

- 2019-08: CAD 54.57 per share

- 2019-09: CAD 59.24 per share

- 2019-10: CAD 59.09 per share

- 2019-11: CAD 60.61 per share

- 2019-12: CAD 59.21 per share

- 2020-01: CAD 62.22 per share

- 2020-02: CAD 57.99 per share

- 2020-03: CAD 45.27 per share

- 2020-04: CAD 47.71 per share

- 2020-05: CAD 47.23 per share

- 2020-06: CAD 49.89 per share

- 2020-07: CAD 52.21 per share

- 2020-08: CAD 54.44 per share

- 2020-09: CAD 54.26 per share

- 2020-10: CAD 53.01 per share

- 2020-11: CAD 57.67 per share

- 2020-12: CAD 56.60 per share

- 2021-01: CAD 59.10 per share

- 2021-02: CAD 61.24 per share

- 2021-03: CAD 63.51 per share

- 2021-04: CAD 66.31 per share

- 2021-05: CAD 64.68 per share

- 2021-06: CAD 63.92 per share

- 2021-07: CAD 64.98 per share

- 2021-08: CAD 64.96 per share

- 2021-09: CAD 65.20 per share

- 2021-10: CAD 70.53 per share

- 2021-11: CAD 67.83 per share

- 2021-12: CAD 70.41 per share

- 2022-01: CAD 71.99 per share

- 2022-02: CAD 66.66 per share

- 2022-03: CAD 69.80 per share

- 2022-04: CAD 63.91 per share

- 2022-05: CAD 61.78 per share

- 2022-06: CAD 58.98 per share

- 2022-07: CAD 59.46 per share

- 2022-08: CAD 57.86 per share

- 2022-09: CAD 54.93 per share

- 2022-10: CAD 57.86 per share

- 2022-11: CAD 63.74 per share

- 2022-12: CAD 62.85 per share

- 2023-01: CAD 66.86 per share

- 2023-02: CAD 65.94 per share

- 2023-03: CAD 63.14 per share

- 2023-04: CAD 66.46 per share

- 2023-05: CAD 65.75 per share

- 2023-06: CAD 69.06 per share

- 2023-07: CAD 69.40 per share

- 2023-08: CAD 65.91 per share

- 2023-09: CAD 66.27 per share

- 2023-10: CAD 63.34 per share

- 2023-11: CAD 68.52 per share

- 2023-12: CAD 68.72 per share

- 2024-01: CAD 69.69 per share

- 2024-02: CAD 72.08 per share

- 2024-03: CAD 73.91 per share

- 2024-04: CAD 70.29 per share

- 2024-05: CAD 68.31 per share

- 2024-06: CAD 67.08 per share

- 2024-07: CAD 68.54 per share

- 2024-08: CAD 73.46 per share

- 2024-09: CAD 78.45 per share

- 2024-10: CAD 77.20 per share

- 2024-11: CAD 86.17 per share

- 2024-12: CAD 85.35 per share

- 2025-01: CAD 83.81 per share

- 2025-02: CAD 80.46 per share

- 2025-03: CAD 82.36 per share

- 2025-04: CAD 82.15 per share

- 2025-05: CAD 88.40 per share

- 2025-06: CAD 90.61 per share

- 2025-07: CAD 84.48 per share

- 2025-08: CAD 80.22 per share

- 2025-09: CAD 83.57 per share

- 2025-10: CAD 85.31 per share

- 2025-11: CAD 82.83 per share

- 2025-12: CAD 85.68 per share

- 2026-01: CAD 85.80 per share

- 2026-02: CAD 89.40 per share

- 2026-03: CAD 87.15 per share

- 2026-04: CAD 97.87 per share

- 2026-05: CAD 99.08 per share

- 2026-06: CAD 111.35 per share

- 2026-07: CAD 116.31 per share

- 2026-08: CAD 108.85 per share

- 2026-09: CAD 110.92 per share

- 2026-10: CAD 110.83 per share

## Annual estimated value (CAD per share)

- FY2016: low CAD 35.59 per share, central CAD 44.49 per share, high CAD 59.32 per share

- FY2017: low CAD 37.11 per share, central CAD 46.38 per share, high CAD 61.84 per share

- FY2018: low CAD 42.83 per share, central CAD 53.54 per share, high CAD 71.39 per share

- FY2019: low CAD 44.96 per share, central CAD 56.20 per share, high CAD 74.93 per share

- FY2020: low CAD 51.58 per share, central CAD 64.47 per share, high CAD 85.96 per share

- FY2021: low CAD 59.98 per share, central CAD 74.98 per share, high CAD 99.97 per share

- FY2022: low CAD 37.99 per share, central CAD 41.79 per share, high CAD 46.44 per share

- FY2023: low CAD 26.64 per share, central CAD 29.30 per share, high CAD 32.55 per share

- FY2024: low CAD 34.18 per share, central CAD 37.60 per share, high CAD 41.78 per share

- FY2025: low CAD 52.51 per share, central CAD 65.64 per share, high CAD 87.52 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:39:46.534Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

[Original 40-F filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1097362/000109736226000010/slf-20251231.htm); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-02-12.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.
← Companies

Sun Life Financial

SLF · TO

S&P/TSX 60

Not a wonderful business

1 quality test fails. A lower price would not fix the business.

Share price
CAD 111.46
Buy up to
CAD 73.69
Expected / yr
8.6% at today's price (10.0% at central value)

The business

How it makes money
Why customers stay
Where the cash goes
Are managers owners
What the price says

1. Is this a good business?

Evidence only; not required for Buy

Profits were positive in 10 years (at least 8 needed).

10y median
CAD 2.8B
Worst year
CAD 2.1B
Latest · 2025
CAD 3.5B

Earned a median 11.3% on equity (minimum 10%).

10y median
11.3%
Worst year
9.6%
Latest · 2025
13.8%

Book value plus dividends grew 9.6% a year (minimum 7%).

10y median
10.4%
Worst year
-7.2%
Latest · LTM
14.7%

Book value gained 9.81 per share against 12.26 kept (must cover the amount kept).

11y median
96
Worst year
100
Latest · 2025
92

0 accounting warnings were found (none allowed).

accounting warnings
0
Passing bar
≤ 0

Profit record · pass 0 loss years in 10 (at most 2), three-year average earnings per share 5.54 CAD.

2. Is the price low enough?

Price & return math
Value rangeCAD 58.95 – CAD 98.25
Buy at or belowCentral value CAD 73.69
Discount to value1 − 111.46 / 73.69 = -51.3%
Return / yearAbout 8.6% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%)
Cash-flow inputsBook CAD 20.63/share; ROE 20.3%; first payout CAD 2.95/share, growing 6.0% perpetually (4× book payout cap applied).
Required return10.0% / year, earned by construction at the central value
Net incomeCAD 3.6B
3.9B020172026
FY2017 · Net income: CAD 2.1B; FY2018 · Net income: CAD 2.5B; FY2019 · Net income: CAD 2.6B; FY2020 · Net income: CAD 2.4B; FY2021 · Net income: CAD 3.9B; FY2022 · Net income: CAD 3.1B; FY2023 · Net income: CAD 3.1B; FY2024 · Net income: CAD 3.0B; FY2025 · Net income: CAD 3.5B; FY2026 · Net income: CAD 3.6B
Net income
Book / shareCAD 47.34
47.34020172026
FY2017 · Book / share: CAD 36.41; FY2018 · Book / share: CAD 39.38; FY2019 · Book / share: CAD 39.79; FY2020 · Book / share: CAD 41.47; FY2021 · Book / share: CAD 44.60; FY2022 · Book / share: CAD 46.60; FY2023 · Book / share: CAD 40.04; FY2024 · Book / share: CAD 44.76; FY2025 · Book / share: CAD 44.57; FY2026 · Book / share: CAD 47.34
Book / share
Dividend / shareCAD 3.81
3.81020172026
FY2017 · Dividend / share: CAD 1.88; FY2018 · Dividend / share: CAD 2.04; FY2019 · Dividend / share: CAD 2.24; FY2020 · Dividend / share: CAD 2.31; FY2021 · Dividend / share: CAD 2.42; FY2022 · Dividend / share: CAD 2.84; FY2023 · Dividend / share: CAD 3.20; FY2024 · Dividend / share: CAD 3.37; FY2025 · Dividend / share: CAD 3.65; FY2026 · Dividend / share: CAD 3.81
Dividend / share
Return on equity13.8%
15.0%0.0%20162025
FY2016 · Return on equity: 11.3%; FY2017 · Return on equity: 9.6%; FY2018 · Return on equity: 10.6%; FY2019 · Return on equity: 11.2%; FY2020 · Return on equity: 9.8%; FY2021 · Return on equity: 15.0%; FY2022 · Return on equity: 11.1%; FY2023 · Return on equity: 13.1%; FY2024 · Return on equity: 11.7%; FY2025 · Return on equity: 13.8%
Return on equity
Diluted shares561M
613M020172026
FY2017 · Diluted shares: 613M; FY2018 · Diluted shares: 602M; FY2019 · Diluted shares: 588M; FY2020 · Diluted shares: 590M; FY2021 · Diluted shares: 590M; FY2022 · Diluted shares: 589M; FY2023 · Diluted shares: 589M; FY2024 · Diluted shares: 582M; FY2025 · Diluted shares: 566M; FY2026 · Diluted shares: 561M
Diluted shares
Prices 15 Oct 2026 · FY2025Original filing ↗ ·