Legal & General Group Plc Lowers Stock Holdings in Manulife Financial Corp $MFC

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its holdings in Manulife Financial Corp (NYSE:MFC) (TSE:MFC) by 2.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 11,277,287 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 264,034 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned 0.67% of Manulife Financial worth $410,037,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MFC. Canerector Inc. grew its position in shares of Manulife Financial by 4,445.8% in the third quarter. Canerector Inc. now owns 28,184,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $877,932,000 after purchasing an additional 27,564,000 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc grew its position in shares of Manulife Financial by 814.3% in the second quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc now owns 6,399,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $204,544,000 after purchasing an additional 5,699,999 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Manulife Financial by 25.6% in the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 27,822,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $866,649,000 after purchasing an additional 5,671,639 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its position in shares of Manulife Financial by 13,155.3% in the third quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 4,229,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $131,743,000 after purchasing an additional 4,197,592 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in shares of Manulife Financial by 5.8% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 37,638,463 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,172,922,000 after purchasing an additional 2,079,330 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Manulife Financial from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and six have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $51.50.

Manulife Financial Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Manulife Financial stock opened at $38.56 on Tuesday. Manulife Financial Corp has a twelve month low of $29.70 and a twelve month high of $40.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.30 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.29.

Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC) (TSE:MFC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by ($0.02). Manulife Financial had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 16.58%. The firm had revenue of $8.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.99 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Manulife Financial Corp will post 3.2 EPS for the current year.

Manulife Financial Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. Manulife Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.35%.

Manulife Financial Company Profile

Manulife Financial Corporation is a multinational insurance and financial services company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Founded in the late 19th century as The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, Manulife provides a broad range of financial products and services to individual and institutional clients. Its core businesses include life and health insurance, retirement and pension solutions, wealth and asset management, and group benefits.

In wealth and asset management, Manulife operates through Manulife Investment Management and offers mutual funds, segregated funds, institutional asset management, and retirement plan solutions.