Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)

It was disappointing over the last 5 years. Now they have hedged their guaranteed income product and the stock has gone up. The best performer of the lifecos. He would buy it now. All of the risk is out of the stock now. Power Financial is a way to get into this sector cheaply.

Good, big, solid insurer. After going through a fair amount of indigestion through the last several years, lifecos seem to be off to the races now. Wait for a pullback before buying.

What effect will quantitative easing have on this stock? This stock has had a big run. Their sensitivity in their portfolio to interest rates and the stock market has been substantially reduced. They were hedging out their exposure to the stock market as the stock market was rallying. Now they are hedging out their exposure to interest rates. Doesn’t think there is a much exposure as there used to be. This has an OK yield. Has a lot of capital locked up in the balance sheet that if things ever recover down the road they will be able to start taking some gains back into their income.

Her call is that long term interest rates go up which will benefit them and they will do so the most of all the Lifecos. Capital ratios are excellent. Thinks they can’t increase dividend until end of 2014

(Market call minute.) Somewhat overvalued. If you own, he would recommend selling half your position.

(Market call minute.) Still attractive.

He has owned for quite a while. The whole sector has risen for quite some time. Now you are seeing earnings power emerge. Pretty good potential going forward.

Has a bit of a tailwind now which could get stronger if the stock market goes up and interest rates start to rise again. Remember that this company is big in Asia too and that is not factored into the stock at $20. There is some real growth potential here.

Easy money based on interest-rate normalization and capital market normalization has been made. Now a bit of a “show me” story. Market is continuing to look for growth in core earnings. Core earnings are improving and the base business is doing well. Lifecos are going to benefit as interest rates rise. Wouldn’t be rushing in today.

You are very well hedged in this. If equities keep rising, you are doing okay. If the tapering issue starts again and interest-rate rise, this company would be able to reinvest their fixed income, proceeds at higher rates. Feels that insurance and annuities will be a good business going forward.

Likes this. Latest earnings show an improved earnings power and momentum. That combined with improving macro conditions means more likely they are going to meet their 2016 earnings and ROE targets. The key to further multiple expansion from here is whether they can continue to contain their expenses and new business strain. You can try to buy this on a little bit of a pull back.

Chart shows a strong upward trend from mid-2012. It broke above the little resistance, which is reasonably positive. Insurance companies benefit from the rate rise that we saw from May and the stock market, moving up. Until those things change, the trend line says it is going to go up.

His outlook for this company is pretty reasonable. Has had a huge move over the last year. They are delivering on their longer-term clients in terms of deleveraging and hedging the exposure to long-term interest rates and to equity markets. This has had an inordinately large move.

Has just bought more recently. Feels the yield curve is artificially low as a result of the Fed. When he saw the strength in the job market, even with the government shut down and all the chaos that went on, that was a big, big outlier for everybody. The long end of the yield curve should be about 4.5% right now with inflation at around 2%. If you naturalize where the long bond is after inflation, it should be about 4.5%. If he is right, this company has another 20%-30% to go.

A couple of years away from a dividend raise. Have really good insurance growth in Asia and good success in wealth management. A spectre of higher rates means of the higher valuation. His one-year target would be $21. Buy territory would be at around $18. 2.6% dividend.