Many investors in the insurance business can remember the financial crisis when their shares plummeted in value. In many respects, these shares have never recovered to those all-time highs. While this is the case, these companies have been working to grow.

One company in particular that I have had my eye on is Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX:MFC)(NYSE:MFC), an insurance and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto. Manulife was hit hard in the financial crisis. It diluted investors to raise $2.5 billion and cut the dividend in half, and investors watched their equity deteriorate by 75%. However, while this is the case, the. I consent to receiving information from The Motley Fool via email, direct mail, and occasional special offer phone calls. Forticlient Offline Installer For Windows 8. I understand I can unsubscribe from these updates at any time. Please read the and for more information.

Real time Manulife Financial (MFC) stock price quote, stock graph, news & analysis.

Many investors in the insurance business can remember the financial crisis when their shares plummeted in value. In many respects, these shares have never recovered to those all-time highs. While this is the case, these companies have been working to grow. One company in particular that I have had my eye on is Manulife Financial Corp. (NYSE:MFC), an insurance and financial services provider headquartered in Toronto. Manulife was hit hard in the financial crisis.

It diluted investors to raise $2.5 billion and cut the dividend in half, and investors watched their equity deteriorate by 75%. However, while this is the case, the company is working to improve the company’s long-term viability. Acquisitions & partnerships One of the ways Manulife is improving its long-term viability is through an aggressive, but intelligent acquisition and partnership strategy. Manulife recognized that Asia is going to have a lot of people entering the middle class, so the company has been beefing up its operations there. Manulife recently signed a $1.2 billion deal with DBS Group Holdings Ltd. based out of Singapore.

This will give it the exclusive right to offer wealth management products and insurance to DBS clients all across Asia. The deal is for 15 years, which will help cement Manulife in those people’s lives. Back in September 2014 Manulife bought the Canadian operations of Standard Life Plc for $4 billion. Manulife had been targeting the group pension sector, and this acquisition gave it significant market share. Pension management can be a big business for an asset management provider. Finally, Manulife’s U.S.

Division acquired the retirement plan services operations from New York Life, which bolstered its John Hancock brand with $56 billion in assets under management. The results are in In the third quarter Manulife did really well in all three of its geographic holdings.

In Asia its core earnings increased by 30.4% to $356 million. Division saw core earnings increase by 14.9% to $393 million. And its Canadian division was up 39.1% to $338 million. All told, the first three quarters are strong when compared with the previous year. Core earnings, year over year, are up by 18.1% to $2.57 billion. But while these results are good, there is concern that the drop in oil prices since the end of the third quarter could negatively impact Manulife from an earnings perspective.

Fourth-quarter results will come in February. Dividend growth Manulife pays a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, which is a 3.38% yield at present day prices. The good news for investors is that the dividend appears to be growing, with management increasing it over the past two years. I expect that, if the fourth-quarter results are strong and its 2016 prospects remain up, Manulife will increase the dividend again in 2016. All told, Manulife appears to be an absolute steal.

However, commodities can hurt a business like Manulife, and there’s no denying that oil and mines have been doing poorly. Therefore, this might be the type of stock that you buy slowly, while waiting to see how the market reacts to any news. But my belief is that Manulife will start to see growth in its share price throughout 2016. Do you own bank shares?

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Value investing is easily one of the most popular ways to find great stocks in any market environment. After all, who wouldn’t want to find stocks that are either flying under the radar and are compelling buys, or offer up tantalizing discounts when compared to fair value? One way to find these companies is by looking at several key metrics and financial ratios, many of which are crucial in the value stock selection process.

Let’s put Manulife Financial Corporation MFC stock into this equation and find out if it is a good choice for value-oriented investors right now, or if investors subscribing to this methodology should look elsewhere for top picks: PE Ratio A key metric that value investors always look at is the Price to Earnings Ratio, or PE for short. This shows us how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings in a given stock, and is easily one of the most popular financial ratios in the world. The best use of the PE ratio is to compare the stock’s current PE ratio with: a) where this ratio has been in the past; b) how it compares to the average for the industry/sector; and c) how it compares to the market as a whole. On this front, Manulife Financial has a trailing twelve months PE ratio of 12.1, as you can see in the chart below. We should also point out that Manulife Financial has a forward PE ratio (price relative to this year’s earnings) of just 11.9, so it is fair to say that a slightly more value-oriented path may be ahead for Manulife Financial’s stock in the near term too. P/S Ratio Another key metric to note is the Price/Sales ratio.

This approach compares a given stock’s price to its total sales, where a lower reading is generally considered better. Some people like this metric more than other value-focused ones because it looks at sales, something that is far harder to manipulate with accounting tricks than earnings. Right now, Manulife Financial has a P/S ratio of about 1.4.

This is significantly lower than the S&P 500 average, which comes in at 3.4 right now. Also, as we can see in the chart below, this is much below the highs for this stock in particular over the past few years. If anything, this suggests some level of undervalued trading—at least compared to historical norms. Broad Value Outlook In aggregate, Manulife Financial currently has a Value Style Score of A, putting it into the top 20% of all stocks we cover from this look. This makes MFC a solid choice for value investors, and some of its other key metrics make this pretty clear too. For example, the PEG ratio for Manulife Financial is just 1.3, a level that is marginally lower than the industry average of 1.6. The PEG ratio is a modified PE ratio that takes into account the stock’s earnings growth rate.

Clearly, MFC is a solid choice on the value front from multiple angles. What About the Stock Overall? Though Manulife Financial might be a good choice for value investors, there are plenty of other factors to consider before investing in this name. In particular, it is worth noting that the company has a Growth grade of C and a Momentum score of D. This gives MFC a VGM score—or its overarching fundamental grade—of B. (You can read more about the Zacks Style Scores here >>) Meanwhile, the company’s recent earnings estimates have been disappointing.

The current quarter has seen one estimate go higher in the past sixty days and one lower, while the full year estimate has seen one upward and four downward revisions in the same time period. This has had a noticeable impact on the consensus estimate, as the current quarter consensus estimate has fallen about 2.2% in the past two months, while the full year estimate has declined 1.1%. You can see the consensus estimate trend and recent price action for the stock in the chart below: Manulife Financial Corp Price and Consensus. Manulife Financial Corp Price and Consensus Manulife Financial Corp Quote This bearish trend is why the stock has just a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and why we are looking for in-line performance from the company in the near term. Bottom Line Manulife Financial is an inspired choice for value investors, as it is hard to beat its incredible lineup of statistics on this front. Moreover, a decent industry rank (top 21% out of more than 250 industries) further supports the growth potential of the stock. However, with a Zacks Rank #3, it is hard to get too excited about this company overall.

In fact, over the past two years, the sector has clearly underperformed the broader market, as you can see below. So, value investors might want to wait for estimates and analyst sentiment to turn favorable in this name first, but once that happen, this stock could be a compelling pick. Wall Street’s Next Amazon Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time.

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Kennedy International Airport, a robbery retold in the 1990 hit film 'Goodfellas,' starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci. Reuters WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The new U.S. Tax code targets high-tax states and may be unconstitutional, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Thursday, adding that the state is considering overhauling its own tax system in response. The sweeping Republican tax bill signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday introduces a $10,000 cap on deductions of state and local income and property taxes, known as SALT. It was the party's first major legislative victory since Trump took office in January. Investopedia Social Security retirement benefits are similar: by the time you collect Social Security retirement benefits you will have worked for 30 or 40 years, consistently paying into the system with your hard work and dollars.

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Reuters In years past, demand for Apple Inc's latest flagship phone was critical to the company's results over the holiday shopping quarter. On Tuesday, Apple's stock fell 2.5 percent to $170.57 after Taiwan's Economic Daily and several analysts suggested iPhone X sales in the fiscal first quarter would be 30 million units, 20 million fewer than initially planned by the company. The mean revenue estimate for the holiday quarter among 30 analysts remains at $86.2 billion, near the high end of Apple's forecast of $84 billion to $87 billion. Reuters Around two-thirds of the $5 billion decrease is due to repatriation tax, the cost of moving money from foreign countries to the U.S., Goldman said in a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Congress' U.S.

Tax overhaul bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week, significantly cuts the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent. Apple Inc (AAPL.O) is likely to be a big beneficiary of the overhaul since it allows the company bring back its $252.3 billion foreign cash pile without a major tax hit. Motley Fool Many major cryptocurrencies were plunging on Thursday, as South Korean regulators talked about tighter regulation of blockchain currencies in that country. According to a Reuters report Wednesday night, South Korean government officials want to make it harder to speculate in cryptocurrencies.

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