Standard Life Shares

Yorkshireman_3

epninety wrote: »

If it hits £3.20 in the next three months, I'll probably sell too, once I've got over the shock! :rotfl:
Can't help thinking I should sell some and buy into something that's (even more) on the floor at the moment, but just have no idea what exactly.

Just out of interest --- ive shares in Pendragon and DGSi --- they pritty bottom at moment but im selling DGSi if they reach 26 p and prob buying more Pendragon ---- car industry hard times at moment but in 6 mths who knows forever the optomist Oh just watching a new one ETI.L not got ne shares but in future may risk a couple of quid :T

sabretoothtigger

It’s a wonderful life

Life and pensions group Friends Provident got the insurance sector off to a bright start to the week with an upbeat trading statement on Monday. Sales fell by 4% in the last three months of 2008 with the UK again the weak spot, but this was better than expected.
(Read more:Friends Provident upbeat despite sales slippage
http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2574090)

It was more a case of “sub-standard life” when insurer Standard Life said life and pensions sales were 25% lower in the UK in the fourth quarter at £2.4bn (2007: £3.2bn), principally due to lower transfer values.
(Read more: Standard Life sales down 25% in Q4
http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2576440)

World-wide new business and UK new business both rose 3% in 2008 at insurance heavyweight Legal & General. The company’s chief executive, Tim Breedon, hailed the sales performance as “good in a tough environment.”
(Read more:L&G hails good showing in tough environment
http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2579229)

New worldwide life and pension sales dropped 6% at insurer Standard Life during 2008 and were 9% lower in the UK, but slumped by a quarter in the last three months of the year.

The group revealed worldwide life and pensions sales fell to £15.6bn during the year from £16.5bn in 2007, while UK sales slipped to £12.2bn. UK pension sales were down 11%.

But life and pensions sales tumbled 25% during the fourth quarter to £2.4bn, mainly due to lower transfer values.

Total net flows across worldwide life and pensions operations were down to £2.4bn from £2.8bn in 2007, with the strong growth in international operations partly offsetting the impact of continued difficult market conditions in the UK.

Standard said final results are expected to show strong Return on Embedded Value (RoEV), seen ahead of market expectations and broadly similar to the 11.5% reported in 2007, and solid cash generation.

Life insurance sector
52 wk Low/High 2173/ 5294
Last 2692
Price Data Change Over Chg %Chg
1 week 200+8.03
1 month -422-13.56
1 year -2377-46.90

http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/security.cgi?csi=50092

StevieJ

From what I can gather they wont be losing any business from their property portfolio in the near future Iam glad I cashed in my endownment and paid it off my mortgage.

Yorkshireman_3

StevieJ wrote: »

From what I can gather they wont be losing any business from their property portfolio in the near future Iam glad I cashed in my endownment and paid it off my mortgage.

Ive still got a bond and a endowment keeping both for the moment -- the bond lost £600 plus a few mths ago

baby_boomer

Standard shares crash 10% on Monday morning

I'm not sure why.

tonygee_3

Bought @ 173 couple of weeks ago
Just sold @196 today (wish I sold last week @over 220)
Probably soar tomorrow
Buy again if fall back into 170s

sabretoothtigger

Sounds like you are trading the right range at least, less risky then attempting to see them at 230 or above

Feels like the tide is going out on SL. The trading results were slightly weaker then expected, the price should rise towards march I would expect but apparently its not going to be as much as hoped.
They fell with the bank and insurance sector but lost more then all but barclays

Slight positive towards the close & clinging onto 200 with its fingernails

Following are the 10 largest fund managers in the United Kingdom, including the proposed new group:

FIRM ASSETS (BLN POUNDS)

Invesco Perpetual 23.8

Fidelity Investment Management 19.4

Standard Life 18.5

Legal and General 18.4

Henderson and New Star 15.4

HBOS Investment Fund Mgr 13.9

Schroders 13.4

M&G Securities 12.6

Scottish Widows 12.5

Threadneedle 11.9

27% of FTSE 100 priced below liquidation price


3 other insurance companies in the same sector as SL are valued at less then 50% of their book value (NAV) which makes SL look expensive at 119% (2007: 150%)

http://www.digitallook.com/news/2583002/27_of_FTSE_100_priced_below_liquidation_price.html
http://www.digitallook.com/cgi-bin/dlmedia/stock_screener.cgi

29th_January wrote:

Standard Life lifts gloom

Standard Life lifted the gloom among financial sector shareholders yesterday when it issued "a positive profit warning", sparking its shares by 8%.

The insurer said that its solvency level had improved and its return on embedded value was on course to match last year's performance - up to 15% better than the market was expecting.

It also moved to defuse the row over last week's 5% devaluation of its "sterling" pension fund by saying it would consider loss claims "on an individual basis" - reversing a rebuff given to financial advisers earlier this week. Some 44% of the 97,000-investor fund is held in mortgage-backed securities, including 13% in sub-prime. Finance director David Nish said Standard's response to complaints would be "not a blanket approach".



In the final quarter of 2008, Standard suffered a 25% fall in new life and pensions business in the UK, with pensions down by 28% and savings and investments down by 20%. That dragged UK sales for the year to a 9% decline at £12.2bn.
But worldwide sales were down only 6%, boosted by a 9% rise in Canada to £2bn and a 17% uplift in Asia to £495m.

The Edinburgh-based insurer said its capital strength was robust as it sought to reassure investors following high volatility in the sector - Standard's shares hit a low of 177p in late October, jumped to 287p in early December, and skidded back to 182p last week. They rose 16.25p to 223p yesterday, as Standard said its regulatory capital buffer stood at £3.5bn - up from £3.4bn at the end of September, thanks to what it said was "extensive" hedging against equity falls.

The group said Standard Life Investments had "held up well", with total funds under management decreasing by 14% to £123.8bn in the year.

In the key growth areas, Sipp funds increased by 13% to £8.7bn, with net inflows falling from £3.4bn to £2.5bn. Sipp customer numbers increased by 41% to 65,900, including 4900 new accounts in the final quarter against 3500 in the third quarter.
Group Sipp volumes increased by 21% and accounted for 31% of total group pensions sales (2007: 27%).

Funds on the Wrap platform jumped from £1.1bn to £1.8bn during the year, and IFA users almost doubled to 409. Mutual fund sales on the platform increased by 8% to £731m, though sales of investment bonds were 29% lower at £1.3bn.

Savings and investments sales were down by 4% to £2.7bn, but offshore bond sales were up 133% to £661m helped by "increased Irish governmental guarantees on cash deposits".

Panmure analyst Barrie Cornes said the key message was the "positive profit warning", driven largely by favourable changes to assumptions and some efficiency gains in the insurer's back book of business

http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/news/display.var.2485357.0.Standard_Life_lifts_gloom.php

Standard Life also signalled that it would not attempt to increase its bank's mortgage book.

Total mortgages under management stood at £9.7bn at the end of 2008, a fall of £1.6bn year-on-year, part of a policy Nish said Standard Life Bank would continue as it sought a balance between its banking unit's savings and its loans.

Standard Life Bank grew its share of the mortgage market earlier this decade using securitisation, and, with the markets for these type of assets illiquid, Nish said the mortgage book was likely to fall until the bank was "more like a savings bank", with deposits balancing loans. He hinted the change in strategy could be good for cash savers.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/Standard-Life-shares-surge-on.4924365.jp

I dont believe its a big factor in their accounts afaik

Avg_EPS_Grth._1yr wrote:

SL 60.74%

Yorkshireman_3

tonygee wrote: »

Bought @ 173 couple of weeks ago
Just sold @196 today (wish I sold last week @over 220)
Probably soar tomorrow
Buy again if fall back into 170s

When you do hold just a little bit longer :beer:

sabretoothtigger

This is all yesterdays news so could be just plain incorrect as company figures (may) fall off a cliff but worth reading anyway I figure.


Getting desperate here but since the prices have shown similar sentiment recently, some slight good news:

Broker snap: Lloyds given second broker boost

Lloyd’s Banking Group received another fillip Monday in the form of an upgrade to ‘in-line’ from ‘underperform’.

The upgrade comes after a week of recovery for Lloyds following sharp slumps in the group’s first week of trading.

Shares in the company were boosted last week by an upbeat note from the broker Citigroup which concluded from its sums that investors are unduly concerned that Lloyds Banking will be fully nationalised.

This came after sharp drops the previous week in line with concerns that the banking sector faced further losses and further nationalisation.

Today’s upgrade from Cazenove failed to prevent a 4% fall in Lloyds’ value.

sabretoothtigger

SL ended on a high today after staying strong all day but a 6% rise after a 10% fall still maintains a negative tone to its movements.

It seems sensible to adjust price expectations downwards for the moment, sentiment continues to follow the banks prospects.
RBS shares rated up today is some good news for the short term

STANDARD Life has been appointed by BT to develop a corporate self invested personal pension (Sipp) plan for its 20,000 employees currently in defined contribution plans.

The scheme is due to launch in April, with the first staff to join the scheme moving across from existing arrangements.

Andrew Dickson, senior business development manager at Standard Life Corporate Solutions, said: "

The scheme will set a new benchmark in the corporate pensions market."