Sun Life Financial has released its financial results for the third quarter of 2016, revealing a quarterly profit that was better than anticipated.
For the third quarter ended September 30, Sun Life’s reported net income reached $737 million. Operating net for the quarter was $750 million and underlying net income was at $639 million—representing a 21% jump compared to the previous year quarter.
“We delivered strong results this quarter, with all of our businesses driving growth in underlying earnings over the prior year. We announced a 4% increase in our common share dividend, reflecting the growth in our business, our commitment to return capital to shareholders and confidence in our four pillar strategy,” said Sun Life Financial president and CEO Dean Connor in a statement.
“We grew insurance sales by 25% and wealth sales by 28% compared to the third quarter of 2015; increased ownership in our Asia joint ventures; progressed on the integration of our US employee benefits acquisition; and grew our Canadian wealth and asset management businesses.”
“During the quarter we gave our clients new digital solutions that make it easier to do business with us,” Connor explained. “In Canada, our clients’ overall mobile usage is growing by 50% annually, due to features such as fingerprint recognition and photo capture for insurance claims.”
According to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, analysts on average had expected earnings of 93 Canadian cents per share.
Sun Life’s underlying net income in Canada increased to $226 million, from $174 million in the same period last year. Its underlying net income in the US saw a 41% increase to $103 million. The company said that its net income rose 53% to $737 million.
The company also reported that its total wealth sales rose 28.4% to $35.2 billion. Its insurance sales surged 25% to $661 million.
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