Topic: How To Invest

MANULIFE FINANCIAL $22.70 – Toronto symbol MFC

MANULIFE FINANCIAL $22.70 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $45.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.0%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services.

In the three months ended March 31, 2015, Manulife’s earnings per share gained 5.4%, to $0.39 from $0.37 a year earlier. Revenue rose 25.1%, to $7.83 billion from $6.26 billion.

The company continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about 40% of its insurance premiums come from that region, which is adding to its revenue and profits.

Manulife ended the latest quarter with $821.3 billion of assets under management, up 29.4% from $635.0 billion a year earlier. A large part of the increase came from U.K.-based Standard Life’s Canadian insurance operations, which Manulife bought for $4.0 billion in late 2014.

To expand its Manulife Bank subsidiary, the company plans to install 830 ATMs in Mac’s, Circle K and Couche-Tard convenience stores across Canada. (The owner of these chains, Alimentation Couche-Tard, is a recommendation of our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter.) Manulife Bank has over $22 billion in assets.

The stock trades at just 12.5 times its forecast 2015 earnings of $1.82 a share. Manulife raised its quarterly dividend by 5.6% with the June 2015 payment, to $0.17 from $0.155. It yields 3.0%.

Manulife is a buy.

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