Manulife sales spur profit

Article Excerpt

MANULIFE FINANCIAL CORP. $23.39 (Toronto symbol MFC; Shares outstanding: 2.0 billion; Market cap: $45.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.2%; www.manulife.ca) offers life and other related forms of insurance, as well as mutual funds and investment management services. In the quarter ended September 30, 2016, Manulife earned $0.49 per share, up 14.0% from $0.43 a year earlier. The rise was due to higher insurance and mutual fund sales as well as stronger investment portfolio returns. The company continues to expand in growing Asian markets. Right now, about 40% of its earnings come from that region. Manulife has $966.0 billion of assets under management, up 8.8% from $888.0 billion a year earlier. A large part of the increase came from strong wealth management sales and higher returns for client portfolios. Manulife is a buy. buy…