Standard Life Shares

Yorkshireman_3

StevieJ wrote: »

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/090312/214/iiery.html

Todays good news
http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/16032009/404/4-shares-blew-market.html :j

sabretoothtigger

Yep the ever so fickle market tide is in and good ship sl is bobbing around on the dock of the bay

I think it should push past 200 but it may not, depends how much people want this dividend vs other stocks since there is probably better opportunities but not many safer ones imo

I wonder how much it will fall back past Wednesday and how long this good news market lasts in total.
Prudential is to report Thursday and this company is largely based in USA afaik as well as internationally (more so then sl) so Ive no idea how that will be taken really, today they anticipate good results it seems


Any other big news companies to report soon? Barclays says they doing ok but then they would say that

Ex-divs to take 4.39 points off FTSE 100 on March 18

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSLG42122520090316


SL Google News stories -
http://www.google.co.uk/finance?q=sl.l&hl=en&ned=uk&tab=ne

tonygee wrote: »

This sector has been great for trading but it wont last and new lows seem inevitable
I would be interested if a panic led to SL @ sub 145 at which point +30% could follow

Right on, we have sl at 50% above its lows now or about 30% above 145

A target price of 230 at the Jan ftse high would roughly equate to 197 at current market expectations, judged by the sector it should be at 140 so at present its relatively highly valued. Of course it could continue to outperform its peers










https://www.bankofscotlandhalifaxmarketwatch.co.uk/security.cgi?csi=186960&action=financials&sub_action=fundamentals&username=&ac=&area=profit_loss&data_set=geo

The group retains a customer base of approximately 7 million individual and corporate customers on a global basis. Whilst the majority of the company’s profits are still generated in the UK, the group has a reasonable size operation in Canada, with further smaller businesses in such regions as Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong, China and India.

The group’s recent full year results (12Mar09) saw the company delivering results broadly in line with expectations. Operating profits calculated on a European Embedded Value basis rose by 6pc to £933m, with management highlighting its success in cutting costs as partially responsible for the improvement – a company target of reducing £100m in cost savings was successfully achieved. Like rivals, management also attempted to reassure investors with regards to the company’s financial strength. A capital cushion (financial groups directive surplus) of £3.3 billion was reported after allowing for the payment of a dividend, against a surplus of £3.4 billion for the financial year 2007. In addition, management noted that the capital cushion would fall to £2.9 billion in the event of a 40pc drop in stock markets from their end of 2008 levels. Despite highlighting a challenging economic outlook, cautious confidence for the future was expressed via a 2.3pc increase in the dividend payment.

Acting for positive investor considerations, sales for overseas regions such as Canada and Asia have shown progress, whilst costs across the group continue to be cut. Furthermore, like rivals, management has moved to reassure investors with regards to its capital position, whilst the shares have already fallen by 30pc plus over the last six months alone (source: Digital Look). On the negative side of the equation, the group’s relatively small overseas operations continue to leave the group more exposed to the fortunes of the UK economy than some rivals, whilst investors continue to fret regarding the broader industry’s financial strength. In addition, overall sales for 2008 declined against that achieved in 2007. On balance, market consensus opinion is currently negative in tone.

http://www.h-l.co.uk/shares/security_research/sedol/B16KPT4

2008 Final Dividend Timetable

Standard Life plc confirms the following dates in respect of the proposed final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2008 of 7.70p per share:

Record Date: 20 March 2009

Payment Date: 29 May 2009

Life and pensions group Friends Provident expects new business in early 2009 to be below the 2008 comparatives and said 2009 will be a tough year for economies worldwide. Life and pensions net cash operating flow was a deficit of £12m compared to a £19m surplus last time as the group reduced new business strain in line with its new strategy. Pre-tax losses fr om continuing operations rose to £871m from £113m last time. The group said its dividend policy is unchanged.

Greig Paterson of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is less impressed with Standard Life, retaining an ‘underperform’ rating

and setting a price target of 203p for the shares.

In a note entitled ‘something for both bulls and bears’ Greig Paterson of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods highlights the

pros and cons of Standard Life’s results.

For the bulls: ‘The balance sheet per share numbers were ahead of consensus. However, as flagged in our preview,

IFRS/share was predictably ahead (21% beat). Embedded value at 286p was 8% ahead - however, once we strip out what

we see as low quality operating assumption changes and a large unexplained beat on the pension fund, we see the

result as 3% ahead.’

For the bears: ‘The value of new business was 10% light, which speaks to our view that the group is most exposed to

the worst UK demographic as far as the credit crisis is concerned. In addition, for a company with a "clean

balance" sheet, a flat final dividend, together with material misses on both IFRS operating earnings (21% miss) and

group cash flow (12% miss), could disappoint.’

He concludes: ‘After this week's run, with a price to KBW estimate of market-consistent fair value of 63% versus

the European peer group of 54%, we see much better risk reward in other UK names.’






The insurance sector was mixed after results from Friends Provident showed that the smallest of the blue-chip

insurers widened its net loss in 2008, largely related to impairments in its stake in F&C Commercial Property

Trust.

Friends reassured investors on its capital position, but cut its full-year dividend to 3.9p from 8p in 2007 and

said it was creating a holding company to manage the dividend payment. The shares fell 2.7 per cent to 67.6p.

“The results highlighted a robust capital position, but new business contribution was light,” said Steven Haywood

at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “The stock offers some value, but we see much better value elsewhere.”

Sector leader Prudential fell 2.6 per cent to 272p, but Britain’s number-two insurer Aviva climbed 1.3 per cent to

200¾p and Old Mutual rallied 4.2 per cent to 39.6p.

Rival Standard Life initially fell after Citigroup cut its price target to 230p from 270p, due to its slightly

higher risk profile. But the broker added that it still rated the company a ”buy” as it generates decent cash flow,

much of which goes to the dividend. The shares were flat at 184.8p.

dam it citigroup stole my target price :laugh:

Aviva numbers give insurance fright of its life - Mar-05
Old Mutual ponders group ‘simplification’ - Mar-05

Shares in insurers have been hit in recent weeks by investor concerns about their capital positions.

“The economic environment continues to be challenging and the outlook for markets remains uncertain,” said Sir

Sandy Crombie, chief executive.

“Whilst market conditions mean that the outlook for retail savings remain subdued, we continue to see opportunities

for the profitable markets in which we operate, including group pensions and fixed-income investment mandates.

“As an asset-managing business, our revenues will inevitably be impacted by lower financial market levels in the

short term, [but] we retain our focus on efficiency and that will mitigate the impact of this effect on

profitability.”

Under European embedded value (EEV) accounting rules – those that Standard Life prefers, which assess the current

value of the company – the group fell to a pre-tax loss of £158m compared with profit of £838m ($1.1bn) the year

before.

The swing in profitability was caused by market volatility and poor investment returns, which knocked £849m off

pre-tax profits, whereas in 2007, poor investment returns were responsible for only £17m in losses.

Group embedded value rose from £6.21bn to £6.25bn, equivalent to embedded value per share of 286p. EEV operating

profit rose 6 per cent to £933m.

Under separate IFRS accountancy rules, the group swung to a pre-tax loss of £476m compared with a pre-tax profit of

£620m the year before , as revenue from premiums fell 5 per cent to £3.6bn. The full-year dividend is 11.77p, up 2.3

per cent, with a 7.7p final.

At the end of December, Standard Life had £157bn in assets under administration.

“Falling equity, property and fixed-interest security values have reduced assets under administration by £14.6bn,”

said Sir Sandy.

“However this equates to only 9 per cent of opening assets [assets at the start of 2008] under administration that

compares favourably with the reduction in financial markets over the period.”

Analysts said the EEV results came in ahead of expectations, although they were disappointed by the IFRS results.

“The IFRS result is less impressive, [than the EEV result] in our view,” said Blair Stewart and Thea Yates at

Merrill Lynch in a note to investors.

“The IFRS operating profit before tax dropped from £714m in 2007 to £154m in 2008 versus our £205m forecast. There

were a number of one-offs that affected the result. Nevertheless, normalising the result still shows a 20 per cent

year-on-year reduction.”

sabretoothtigger

Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF)&
STANDARD LIFE (SL.L)




http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=XLF

Very strong link between this american sector (in red) and sl (in blue) recently. They had a good night last night so a positive influence today?

Heres yesterday and xlf till 8pm when they close

In an otherwise buoyant financial sector Standard Life, HSBC and Land Securities all trade lower in ex-dividend form.

I thought 20th was the new ex-divi date but Im glad to hear theres a good reason their fallback



I got my free trading book from both iii and tradefair as Ive previously mentioned on this thread. They are good quality books not brochures and the iii one discusses covered warrants, the RRP of both comes to £32

PM if you like and I'll dig up the free offer details

StevieJ

Buddy195 wrote: »

Did you hold or sell? Quickly dropped back down.

Just sold my SL. shares and made £100 not bad for short team investment lol. Shame my Lloyds are just over £100 down :mad:

Happy to have held :beer:

tonygee_3

tonygee wrote: »

expect a good bounce of 30-50% from lows over the next few weeks
But market still falling so buy and sell not hold long term

5/3/2009

AVIVA 160-240 +50%
PRU 200-322 +60%
SLIFE 120-190 +58%
FPROV 50-75 +50%
Wasnt far off, hope u were brave enough to prosper:T

sabretoothtigger

Yea pru came out with good results and sl touched 190 again but Im not sure why they fell back so hard

Pru is hoping to reach a 2.5bn buffer of cash when it sells Taiwan liabilities but its a company twice the size of sl so is less secure in theory



SL VS PRU results

Year To Date Low-High

130.80 p - 232.50 p

52 Week Low - High:

130.80 p - 287.00 p

2 Year Low-High

130.80 p - 349.50 p

Latest Shares In Issue:

2,180.77

Revenue:

£ N/A

Operating Profit:

£ N/A

Cash Flow:

£ 3,151,000,000

EPS:

33.90 p

EPS Growth Rate

-32.73

Market Cap:

£ 3,600,000,000

PE Ratio:

11.39

Debt/Equity Ratio:

6.45 %

Latest Trade Date:

Mar-19-2009

Dividend Information Dividend Yield:

5.60 %

Dividend Cover

2.36

http://www.dividendinvestor.co.uk/index.php?symbol=SL.

sabretoothtigger

The rise in equity markets has helped ease some of the concerns over the life insurance sector with Aviva, Friends Provident and Old Mutual all doing well. Legal & General shrugs off concerns that it might announce a dividend cut when it declares its results on Wednesday; the shares rise sharply, helped by a broker note from KBW, which has a 75p price target for the stock.

wed results

StevieJ

What was the problem with SL? It didn't join the party :cool:

sabretoothtigger

It hit 195 and fell back, seemed fair enough to me. It held its ground which builds resistance for future moves but when the market turns I guess it'll fall back again also

203 is the target price for some and my own target of 230 would be roughly 200 at this level of the ftse I think

I wonder how l&g will effect things, I cant help but feel 200 is the top range for any time soon

SL is still at a premium to its peers by about 10 or 20%



http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^NMX8570


Its building strength maybe, I was shorting it tbh but it held pretty good








http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/ratios?symbol=SL.L

Palm_Centro

Anyone else see the huge irony in all this?