A portfolio of stocks I've been building since September 3 is named Volio. It will eventually hold 52 dividend dogs. Volio is the fifth portfolio I've built (at a one dividend dog per-week pace) since 2014. Five portfolios = V for Volio!

Today I'm reviewing the fourth of four financial services sector stocks striving to join my Volio folio. This could be the seventeenth pick for Volio!

That financial services sector includes twenty industries ranging from Asset Management to 8 kinds of Banks, Credit, Exchanges, 6 kinds of Insurance, Savings, and all such financial concerns.

My subject today is a large-cap life insurance company named, Manulife Financial Corp. Their trading ticker symbol is MFC. This is my second report on MFC. I last reported on this company on May 23, 2019, for my Ivy portfolio.

Manulife provides life insurance and wealth management products and services to individuals and group customers in Canada, the United States, and Asia.

Manulife is one of Canada’s Big Three Life Insurance companies (the other two are Sun Life and Great West Life). Manulife also has asset management operations with assets under management or administration exceeding CAD $1 trillion.

Manulife Financial Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

I use three key data points to gauge dividend-paying equities or funds like

Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC):

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest, or not.

Those three basic keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

MFC Price

Manulife's price per share closed at $20.13 yesterday. A year ago its price was $14.05. So, in the past year, its price moved up $6.08, or over 43.3%.

Assuming Manulife's stock trades in the range of $16 to $26 this next year, it's recent $20.13 price could rise by $0.87to reach $21.00 by late-December, 2020, assuming upward price momentum continues.

MFC Dividends

Manulife's latest declared quarterly dividend was $0.189per share paid December 19th.

That $0.189 Q dividend equates to $0.756 annually and yields3.76% based on yesterday's $20.13 closing price.

MFC Gains?

Adding the $0.756 annual estimated dividend to my $0.87 optimistic estimate of Manulife's price upside shows a $1.63 potential gross gain, per share, which will be reduced by any costs to trade these shares.

As for costs, if we put a little over $1,000.00 today in Manulife Financial Corporation at its recent $20.13 price, would buy 50 shares of MFC.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale could cost us$0.20 per share.

Subtract that $0.20 brokerage cost from the estimated $1.63 gross estimated gain per share leaves a net gain of $1.43 X 50 shares = $71.50 or a 7.1% net gain on a $1,006.50 investment.

Therefore, Manulife Financial Corporation, whose trading ticker symbol is MFC shows a possible 7.1% net gain including a 3.76% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to learn if Manulife Financial Corporation (MFC), is worth your time and money.