Manulife's (MFC) Hong Kong Unit Expands China Hospital Network
Manulife Financial Corporation’s MFC Manulife Hong Kong expanded its Designated China Hospital Network. With this development, MFC has become the market leader with the most extensive coverage of these hospitals.
The coverage extends to more than 3,000 listed hospitals across Mainland China from 1,700 covered earlier. Thus, MFC is the first life insurance company in Hong Kong to provide its customers with a network that covers China's Grade III public hospitals. The expansion marks this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) life insurer’s concerted effort to cater to the growing demand for health and protection services.
This premier life insurer is also contemplating expanding its pre-approval cashless service partner network, which will cover over 3,100 hospitals across major cities in Mainland China.
Manulife is aggressively developing its business in Asia, which, in turn, is reaping solid operational results. Notably, the Asia business is the major contributor to the company’s earnings. New business growth in Asia has been aiding the company’s operational results. This market appears attractive, given its changing demographics. In order to tap this market, Manulife remains committed to scaling up its business across Asian regions. Asia has been the fastest-growing insurance segment, supported by strong volume growth and attractive margins.
Thus, Manulife extended its exclusive strategic bancassurance arrangement with Bank Danamon Indonesia to 2036 and entered into an exclusive bancassurance partnership with VietinBank. Manulife continues to expand its distribution network across the region, securing and deepening strategically important distribution agreements with key partners in Japan, Indonesia and Cambodia.
As a result, core earnings in Asia increased 2.1% year over year in the first quarter of 2023. Manulife aims core earnings from the Asia region to account for half of the company’s core earnings by 2025.
Shares have gained 5% year to date, outperforming the industry’s increase of 4.9%. Its strong Asia business, expanding Wealth and Asset Management business and solid capital position should help shares trend higher.
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Other Stocks to Consider
Some other top-ranked stocks from the insurance industry are Reinsurance Group of America RGA, Primerica PRI and GoHealth GOCO.
Reinsurance Group’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, while missing in one. RGA sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RGA’s 2023 and 2024 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 22.9% and 1.4%, respectively. Year to date, RGA shares have gained 1.5%.
Primerica’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the last four quarters, while missing in one. PRI carries a Zacks Rank #2.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PRI’s 2023 and 2024 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 34% and 11.5 respectively. Year to date, PRI shares have surged 35.4%.
GoHealth’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the last four quarters, while missing in the other two. GOCO carries a Zacks Rank #2.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GOCO’s 2023 and 2024 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 73.1% and 12.2%, respectively. Year to date, GOCO’s shares have surged 91.6%.
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Manulife Financial Corp (MFC) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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