MANULIFE FINANCIAL $21.51 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $42.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 2.9%; www.manulife.ca) sells life and other forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services.
In the three months ended December 31, 2014, Manulife’s earnings per share gained 2.9%, to $0.36 from $0.35 a year earlier. Revenue fell slightly, to $7.15 billion from $7.18 billion.
At the end of 2014, Manulife had $691.1 billion of assets under management, up 15.4% from $598.9 billion at the end of 2013. A large part of the increase came from its late 2014 acquisition of U.K.-based Standard Life’s Canadian insurance operations for $4 billion.
Standard Life has 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 U.S. products and continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about a third of its insurance premiums come from that region.
The stock trades at just 11.8 times Manulife’s forecast 2015 earnings of $1.82 a share. It currently yields 2.9%.
Manulife is a buy.
