Manulife Financial Co. (TSE:MFC) Receives C$55.63 Average PT from Brokerages

Manulife Financial Co. (TSE:MFC) (NYSE:MFC) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$55.63.

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Manulife Financial from C$55.00 to C$56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Manulife Financial from C$49.00 to C$52.00 in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Manulife Financial from C$54.00 to C$58.00 in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price target on Manulife Financial from C$52.00 to C$55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded Manulife Financial from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from C$50.00 to C$58.00 in a research report on Thursday, January 8th.

Manulife Financial Stock Performance

MFC stock opened at C$50.16 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of C$84.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$50.77 and its 200 day moving average is C$46.99. Manulife Financial has a 52 week low of C$36.93 and a 52 week high of C$52.97.

Manulife Financial (TSE:MFC) (NYSE:MFC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported C$1.12 earnings per share for the quarter. Manulife Financial had a net margin of 12.52% and a return on equity of 11.75%. The business had revenue of C$22.03 billion during the quarter. As a group, analysts forecast that Manulife Financial will post 3.6104452 EPS for the current year.

Manulife Financial Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.485 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 25th. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Manulife Financial’s payout ratio is currently 57.33%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Shamus Edward Weiland sold 88,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$48.95, for a total value of C$4,332,075.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 53,495 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$2,618,580.25. This represents a 62.33% decrease in their position. Insiders own 0.03% of the company’s stock.

About Manulife Financial

Manulife provides life insurance and wealth management products and services to individuals and group customers in Canada, the United States, and Asia. Manulife is one of Canada’s Big Three Life Insurance companies (the other two are Sun Life and Great West Life). As of Dec. 31, 2021, Manulife reported assets under management or administration of about CAD $1.4 trillion.