Topic: How To Invest

MANULIFE FINANCIAL $22.93 – Toronto symbol MFC

MANULIFE FINANCIAL $22.93 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 1.9 billion; Market cap: $42.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.7%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services.

In the three months ended September 30, 2014, Manulife’s earnings per share gained 8.3%, to $0.39 from $0.36 a year earlier. Revenue rose 7.4%, to $9.5 billion from $8.8 billion, on strong sales of insurance and wealth management products in Asia.

As of September 30, Manulife had $663 billion of assets under management. After the quarter ended, it bought U.K.-based Standard Life’s Canadian insurance operations for $4 billion. In all, Standard Life has about 2,000 employees across Canada, along with 1.4 million clients and $52.0 billion of assets under management.

Like Sun Life, Manulife has eliminated many of its riskier products in the U.S. and continues to add to its presence in expanding Asian markets. Right now, about a third of the company’s insurance premiums come from its operations in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

The stock has risen 14% over the past year, but it trades at just 12.6 times Manulife’s forecast 2015 earnings of $1.82 a share. The company depends on its U.S. operations for about half of its earnings, but the U.S. economy is steadily recovering.

Manulife is a buy.

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