Manulife Financial (MFC.TO)

Seasonal strength from early March to Mid-June. Nice chart with upward trend, outperforming TSX and above its 20 day moving average, but be careful because we are ending the period of seasonal strength.

(Market Call Minute.) Wait for a pullback. It has had a good run.

If there is an upward movement in interest rates, this is one of the best levered to rising rates. He recently reduced his position because it has had a great move. Has international diversification in the Far East. It will benefit from rising interest rates.

A leveraged play on the tailwind that is helping the life insurers. Once you get bond yields going up, which reduces its cost of liability, this stock price will motor. Big Asian exposure. Yield of 3.15%.

If interest rates start to go up, this will help one part of the valuation equation. If the stock market continues to go up, it will also help. Basic business appears to be doing very well. If there is a market correction, you will see this one pull back, so he would not jump in here.

Down last two years but up on the current one. They lost some of the leverage to improving equity markets through hedging. But benefit from emerging markets. Good long term hold and you could own it here.

Likes life insurance over the banks. See interest rates going up eventually. Equity markets going up as well, which is also positive for them.

Just reported quite good results. Have had very strong results out of the US but would like to see stronger growth coming out of Asia. Managed to lower their sensitivity to interest rates to capital markets which is positive.

Better than expected earnings. There is a bit of a lid that it is coming into now. He wants to see it break the lid before it will go to the next level of $17 or higher.

Good, solid, big Canadian financial. Has had a great run over the last year. Just had a weak quarter so in the short term he expects a little bit of weakness. Good, solid, blue chip company. Most of the damage was done 5 years ago in the 2008-2009 pull back. Could see a bit of a pull back this summer.

This company is still a little bit levered to the market, so if you believe the market is going up, you step into this. If you don’t, then you go to another insurer. Has done quite well but recently broke its upward trend line and is going sideways. Major support is about $13 and if it breaks that support on the downside, it would then go down to about $12.50. If you own, you might want to hold it a little bit but this is not the seasonal time for this company.

(A Top Pick Sept 11/12. Up 28.14%.) Earnings are in recovery mode and are poised to continue to rise over the next few years at lower double digits. Still sees quite a bit of upside here.

(A Top Pick April 27/12. Up 13.22%.)

He is negative on life insurance. Property and casualty is his preference. But MFC has done well, great franchise in Asia. In this environment he doesn’t see how they make their ROE targets. Maybe own it in 2014.

Got fed up with the potential for their return going forward, which he thinks is going to be restricted because low interest rates are here for years and years to come. You can’t go too far wrong with this because valuation is cheap. Dividend is completely safe. ROE is coming back. Feels there are better opportunities in the financial space.