Manulife Financial Corp $MFC Stock Position Lowered by Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky

Key Points

• Teachers Retirement System of the State of Kentucky trimmed its stake in Manulife by 15.5% to 753,560 shares (worth about $27.34M), while several other institutions dramatically increased holdings, leaving institutional ownership at roughly 52.56%.
• Manulife beat quarterly EPS estimates (reported $0.80 vs. $0.76), raised its quarterly dividend to $0.485 (annualized $1.94, ~5.0% yield), and has a consensus analyst rating of Buy with a $51.50 target.

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lessened its position in Manulife Financial Corp (NYSE:MFC - Free Report) TSE: MFC by 15.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 753,560 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 137,950 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky's holdings in Manulife Financial were worth $27,339,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MFC. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered Manulife Financial from a "buy (b+)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised Manulife Financial from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have given a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $51.50.

Manulife Financial Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:MFC opened at $38.74 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 0.82. Manulife Financial Corp has a 1-year low of $29.70 and a 1-year high of $39.22. The business's fifty day moving average price is $35.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.38.

Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC - Get Free Report) TSE: MFC last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $11.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. Manulife Financial had a return on equity of 16.43% and a net margin of 9.18%.During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.03 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Manulife Financial Corp will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Manulife Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 25th were given a dividend of $0.485 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 25th. This is a positive change from Manulife Financial's previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.0%. Manulife Financial's payout ratio is presently 63.96%.

About Manulife Financial

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.

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