Bleakley Financial Group LLC Acquires New Position in Manulife Financial Corp $MFC

Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Manulife Financial Corp (NYSE:MFC) (TSE:MFC) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 25,585 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $928,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in MFC. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in Manulife Financial in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 269.2% during the fourth quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. American Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Manulife Financial during the third quarter worth $36,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. grew its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 208.8% during the fourth quarter. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. now owns 1,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearstead Trust LLC grew its stake in shares of Manulife Financial by 144.4% during the third quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 1,256 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 742 shares during the last quarter. 52.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MFC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Manulife Financial from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. TD Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Manulife Financial in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and six have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.50.

Manulife Financial Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MFC opened at $38.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $63.78 billion, a PE ratio of 15.16 and a beta of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $37.38 and its 200-day moving average is $36.42. Manulife Financial Corp has a 52 week low of $29.70 and a 52 week high of $40.40.

Manulife Financial (NYSE:MFC) (TSE:MFC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.77 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.79 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $8.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.32 billion. Manulife Financial had a net margin of 10.19% and a return on equity of 16.58%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.99 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Manulife Financial Corp will post 3.2 EPS for the current year.

Manulife Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 19th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th will be issued a $0.485 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. This represents a $1.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. Manulife Financial’s payout ratio is presently 56.35%.

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.