Christine Poole Manulife Financial MFC-T BUY ON WEAKNESS Feb 20, 2025

He held this a long time, patiently. Shares finally broke above $28 last year after a long repair period. There remains upside as it raises its dividend and has diversified sales in North America and Asia.

A lifeco, but also offers investment products. Solid, dependable. 

Likes it. Globally diversified. Slightly better dividend than SLF right now, though he likes both names. Also slightly cheaper than SLF, so that's why MFC is in his portfolio.

Great performance in 2024 with good dividend yield. Does not own shares. Good growth prospects ahead. Would recommend buying on weakness. 

A year it ago, it traded at a dirt cheap 6-7x PE. Many thought it was left for dead with bad insurance contracts. In Dec. 2023, they sold a lot of those contracts at a decent price. That's when he entered this. But he recently sold this to buy TD (which has more upside).

Markets are tough and can be counter-intuitive. Great beat, and the sector is sheltered from tariffs. Free of negative surprises, unlike SLF. Street models 12.5% EPS growth, trading at 9.34x -- cheaper and more compelling than banks.

The answer could be that the good news was already baked into the stock. He'd take it as a really good sign that it's actually up in the past week of a really tough market. More to go, but doesn't go in a straight line. He's long this one.

Really likes. Attractive valuation. Down ~11% from highs last November. Pretty nice dividend of 4.3%. Holding above the 200-day MA, which is moving upwards. Insurance space gives you decent growth with protectiveness of the dividend.

(Note the short timeframe.)  Caught up in sentiment against the financial sector. In the group, insurance companies have actually held up fairly well (haven't gone down as much as everything else). 

Nice Q4 beat. Provides some shelter from tariffs. Still trades at slight discount of 9x, growing ~12%. Nice dividend. Competitor SLF is the one that's had 2 negative surprises in a year. 

Still a buy, but be aware that investors are flocking to this area, so it could eventually drop. Great compounder from here for the next 5 years.