OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Manulife Financial Corp. (MFC.TO, MFC) reported fourth-quarter core earnings per share of C$0.73 compared to C$0.65, prior year. On average, 15 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of C$0.75, for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Core earnings were C$1.5 billion, up 10% from a year ago.
Fourth-quarter reported annualized premium equivalent sales were C$1.5 billion, an increase of 1% from previous year.
Manulife's Board announced an increase of 12% or 3 cents per share to its quarterly common shareholders' dividend resulting in a dividend of C$0.28 per share on the common shares, payable on and after March 19, 2020 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 25, 2020.
Phil Witherington, CFO, said, 'We continued to make significant progress improving the capital efficiency of our legacy businesses and released a total of C$5.1 billion of capital as of fourth quarter of 2019, achieving our 2022 target three years ahead of schedule. We are also pleased to have achieved our medium-term leverage target of 25%, after taking into account the C$500 million redemption of debentures in January 2020.'
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