Citigroup: Sun Life Investor Day Yields Little New Info

Citigroup analyst Colin Devine was largely unimpressed with Sun Life Financial Inc.’s (SLF) investor day last week it seems.

“Not a lot of new information,” he says in a note. “The meeting did not yield any basis to change our opinion on [Sun Life’s] relative attractiveness nor did it cause us to change our earnings estimate.”

Mr. Devine left his target price for Sun Life’s stock at C$55.

Nevertheless, the analyst did find a spark of interest. “One exception [to the lack of new material] was the news management has found a funding solution for the U.S. life insurance line where surplus strain from new sales has meaningfully been squeezing earnings.”

Sun Life announced it is implementing a new U.S. domestic funding solution, which includes reducing new business strain in the remainder of 2007. Management also said the company is continuing to pursue alternative funding structures.

Sun Life also highlighted the turnaround at money manager MFS Investment Management and its expanding Asian operations. “They remain relatively small contributors,” Mr. Devine.

In the absence of any more exciting news from Sun Life, it will take “a major upward move by Sun U.S. to make the company’s shares attractive,” he added.