Share Buybacks And Digital Transformation Will Strengthen Future Shareholder Value

Key Takeaways

• Manulife's growth in Asia and digital transformations enhance revenue, efficiency, and operational margins, benefiting future earnings.
  
• Share buybacks and strong financials boost EPS and signal sustained growth, supporting long-term stability and shareholder value.
  
• Rising reinsurance costs and sales variability, alongside experience losses, could diminish future revenue stability and net margins across key segments.

Catalysts

Provides financial products and services in the United States, Canada, Asia, and internationally.

• Manulife is achieving strong growth in Asia, particularly in Hong Kong, driven by a diversified distribution platform and favorable macroeconomic conditions, leading to significant increases in APE sales and new business value, which positively impacts revenue growth.
  
• The company is leveraging its operational efficiency gains in Global WAM, contributing to margin expansion and increased core EBITDA margin, which are expected to improve net margins moving forward.
  
• Manulife's strategic focus on digital transformation and the deployment of GenAI has led to increased operational efficiencies and cost reductions, driving improvements in net margins and future earnings.
  
• Share buybacks are significant, with Manulife repurchasing a considerable number of shares, which strengthens EPS (earnings per share) through capital return to shareholders.
  
• Manulife's solid balance sheet, strong LICAT ratio, and financial flexibility indicate the potential for sustained growth in book value per share, positively impacting shareholders' equity and long-term earnings stability.

Manulife Financial Future Earnings and Revenue Growth

Assumptions

• Analysts are assuming Manulife Financial's revenue will grow by 37.2% annually over the next 3 years.
• Analysts assume that profit margins will shrink from 16.9% today to 9.6% in 3 years time.
• Analysts expect earnings to reach CA$7.5 billion (and earnings per share of CA$4.2) by about December 2027, up from CA$5.1 billion today. The analysts are largely in agreement about this estimate.
• In order for the above numbers to justify the analysts price target, the company would need to trade at a PE ratio of 13.2x on those 2027 earnings, down from 15.3x today. This future PE is greater than the current PE for the CA Insurance industry at 13.1x.
• Analysts expect the number of shares outstanding to grow by 0.55% per year for the next 3 years.
• To value all of this in today's terms, we will use a discount rate of 5.91%, as per the Simply Wall St company report.

Manulife Financial Future Earnings Per Share Growth

Risks

• The potential increase in reinsurance costs for old age mortality may indicate higher future operational costs and could negatively affect the net margins and profitability of the U.S. segment.
  
• Variability in Hong Kong's sales driven by customer demand shifts towards lower-margin savings products could lead to more volatile new business value margins, impacting revenue stability and net margins.
  
• Experience losses in U.S. long-term care insurance due to low mortality could reflect increased claims costs, thereby potentially reducing earnings and profitability in that segment.
  
• The impact of the recent reinsurance transactions with Global Atlantic and RGA has diminished expected investment earnings, potentially affecting future revenue and earnings growth.
  
• Fluctuations in lapse rate assumptions and negative lapse experience, particularly in Asian markets like Vietnam, could lower net margins and reduce the predictability of future earnings.

Valuation

• The analysts have a consensus price target of CA$46.57 for Manulife Financial based on their expectations of its future earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors. However, there is a degree of disagreement amongst analysts, with the most bullish reporting a price target of CA$50.0, and the most bearish reporting a price target of just CA$34.0.
• In order for you to agree with the analyst's consensus, you'd need to believe that by 2027, revenues will be CA$77.7 billion, earnings will come to CA$7.5 billion, and it would be trading on a PE ratio of 13.2x, assuming you use a discount rate of 5.9%.
• Given the current share price of CA$44.6, the analyst's price target of CA$46.57 is 4.2% higher. The relatively low difference between the current share price and the analyst consensus price target indicates that they believe on average, the company is fairly priced.
• We always encourage you to reach your own conclusions though. So sense check these analyst numbers against your own assumptions and expectations based on your understanding of the business and what you believe is probable.