UPDATE: BMO Capital Markets Upgrades Sun Life Financial to Outperform, Raises PT Following Core EPS Report

In a report published Thursday, BMO Capital Markets analyst Tom MacKinnon upgraded the rating on Sun Life Financial SLF from Market Perform to Outperform, and raised the price target from $32.00 to $37.00. In the report, BMO Capital Markets noted, “SLF reported core EPS on continuing operations of $0.63, ahead of our $0.59 estimate and consensus of, we estimate, $0.59-0.60. SLF also revised its 2015 earnings objective to $1.850 billion or 3% higher than our $1.8B estimate...A good beat with excellent sales growth and very good results in all divisions. Especially encouraging was the topline and bottomline growth in Asia and the U.S. The pre-tax total of the combination of expected profit and the impact of new business was up 31% YoY and 29% QoQ for Asia and 25% YoY and 12% QoQ for the U.S. The better revised 2015 earnings objective improves earnings visibility and removes a bit of an overhang on the stock.” Sun Life Financial closed on Wednesday at $32.99.