Manulife earnings beat estimates, shares achieve most in a yr

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Shares of Manulife Financial Corp. made their largest intraday achieve in a yr after the corporate beat expectations within the fourth quarter, capping off a yr of robust development.

The Toronto-based insurance coverage agency reported core earnings of $1.03 per share within the fourth quarter, increased than the 94 Canadian cents predicted by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Manulife additionally introduced it will repurchase about 52 million shares, or three per cent of shares excellent, and raised the quarterly dividend by 10 per cent to 44 Canadian cents per share.

The shares gained as a lot as 8.5 per cent to $45.93 in morning buying and selling in Toronto.

Growth was pushed by the Asia and world wealth asset administration segments, which every delivered double-digit positive factors from a yr in the past. That efficiency “blew previous our expectations, and assist construct our confidence that Manulife can meet its new medium-term targets,” Meny Grauman, analyst with Bank of Nova Scotia, wrote in a consumer word.

Overall, the agency reported $7.2 billion in core earnings for the yr, up eight per cent from 2023.

Manulife closed three reinsurance offers in 2024, the most recent being an settlement with Reinsurance Group of America protecting $5.4 billion of reserves. Chief Financial Officer Colin Simpson mentioned the transactions have been a technique to validate Manulife’s reserves to traders.

“We felt like long-term care acts as an overhang on our investor story,” Simpson mentioned in an interview Wednesday night. “And so we felt traders didn’t have the visibility that we did on our reserve.”

U.S. President Donald Trump’s menace to impose tariffs on imports from Canada are unlikely to derail Manulife’s development, Simpson mentioned, on condition that the corporate doesn’t have a lot cross-border enterprise publicity.

Chief govt Roy Gori, 56, will retire from Manulife in May and be succeeded by Phil Witherington, who heads the Asia division. Gori has led the corporate since October 2017.

Bloomberg.com

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