Manulife Financial (MFC.TO) Buy, Sell or Hold

Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)

61.50

-0.03 (0.05%)

as of Sep 24, 2026, 8:00:00 pm Market Open.

1632 watching

TOP PICK

The valuation is very compelling, at under 10x next year's earnings. It's strengthened its balance sheet. Asian operations. He expects more dividend increases. (Analysts’ price target is $27.68)

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RISKY

SLF vs. MFC MFC is the trading stock vs. SLF is the holding stock (more than a year). Long-term, SLF has a smooth chart, and MFC has been jumpy--but you can make money on those big swings.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick May 25/18, Down 2%) MFC will come back. It trades at 10x earnings and pays over 4% yield. Peers trade at 20x earnings. The lawsuit is now gone, so this will now rise. Even now is a good entry point even though it rose 1.5% today alone.

STRONG BUY

A court dismissed a case against MFC which boosted the stock today. He likes MFC a lot. The litigation overhang is now gone. He's surprised it didn't pop more than 3.3% today, but will carry through. Lifecos do well during rising rates, but those are sluggish now. Their balance sheet in Q4 was sector-best. Asian growth is up 23% year over year. Wealth and asset management was up 17%. He sees EPS 10% growth and 9% dividend growth, trading at 7.2x PE 2020. It's way too cheap. He was buying it today.

HOLD

Manulife Floating Rate Senior Loan Fund (MFR-UN.TO) Insurers are a good place to be as interest rates rise eventually. He slightly prefers Sunlife and the banks. The capital markets remain strong. The 5- and 10-year yield curve need to steepen for lifecos to really benefit. MFR's 8.8% dividend is safe and this space is safe.

WATCH

Manulife vs Sun Life He does not own any Life Co's now but are looking at them. Probably have more torque to upside with Manulife compared to Sun Life. He has not pulled the trigger on this yet, but is watching. He wants to see a little more direction on interest rates before they buy. They do well when interest rates go up.

BUY

Likes it. Canadian financials had a gift in Q4. The short report, he can't comment on it because he doesn't know enough. They've been executing well and buying back an insane number of shares. It's one of his largest positions. He liked their last quarter and they will continue buybacks.

WAIT

We are at a critical inflection point. He really likes the chart. He have had some strong volume over the last two days. Wait the next week or two and then it looks good. (Analysts’ price target is $28.00)

WAIT

The problem is that life insurance companies are having a tough time. You are dealing with a tough sector back drop.

DON'T BUY

He has SLF-T in this space. There is resistance at $22 that it has to punch through. It has a lot of resistance to get through. Look at others. See his Top Picks today. (Analysts’ price target is $28.00)

DON'T BUY

This will continue to be a random return opportunity. They earn a lot of money off capital markets returns. They're dealing with the hangover of low interest rates and mispriced products that'll hound them for many years. The street will always give MFC the benefit of the doubt, because they're large capital markets users. MFC isn't doing anything wrong, but are suffering obligations to their policy holders, which they do by selling new obligations in a slow-growing, low-return environment. Instead, look at BNS, RY or TD Bank.

COMMENT

Despite good numbers, the stock price hasn't risen much. He also doesn't understand why it hasn't gone up more. They've done well with Asian growth. Part of the drag comes from their long-term care business in the U.S.; they've reduced their exposire there. But what needs to happen is for MFC to show a couple of solid straight quarters to boost investor confidence.

BUY

Likes it long- and short-term. He'd buy it. A good company. It'll stay in the $18-24 channel, a wide channel.

DON'T BUY

Will it return to $28 within 12 months? He sold it in 2011 and hasn't returned. MFC never fully recovered from the Great Recession. What is their competitive advantage or moat? He prefer Power Corp among Canadian insurers and dividend payers. He avoid this sector, really.

DON'T BUY

Interest rates likely won't rise as high as previously expected. MFC has a history of not great operations in wealth management, lagging the industry. Also, all financial stocks in Canada have sold off. All this won't raise the stock price.

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Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)