Standard Life Shares

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Yahoo

Standard Life 9 month figures come in slightly below expectations

".....a weak performance overseas offsetting strong UK life and pensions sales."

Down 5p to 288p

AFX - 9 month sales up 26% but below expectations
More detail, further breakdown of the results and some broker comment.

iii
"....In response, Merrill Lynch reiterated its 'hold' advice on Standard Life and said the sales figures were better than its forecast, but broadly in line with consensus...."

And more detail on Yahoo

Reuters
Some analysts are concerned at the lack of good news about lapsed policies and provisions for lapses that were the major concern in September at the time of the half year results.

Times - Standard attracts strong UK sales

Yahoo
"........Swiss broker UBS also stuck to its "neutral" stance arguing that while worldwide sales were up 26%, Canada life sales dropped 39% to £121m.

Scotsman - Standard hails huge rise in new insurance sales

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Yorkshireman wrote:

To suggest add to holdings at £2.85 suggests price is currently far too low?? doesnt it??

I assume that they mean consider selling @ 2.85p.

These published recommendations come out after the broker's clients have had first bite at the cherry. So I assume they were below 2.85p [Evolution's "target price"] when Evolution made its assessment.

Generally the brokers have underestimated the Standard Life share performance to date.

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Guardian - What the analysts say about Standard Life results & share price

"...James Pearce at Cazenove said the sales figures were good, with the key UK operation exceeding expectations, and a UK product mix shifting to higher margin areas.

The group's lower-margin international operations fell short, but management expect a bounce back in Canada in Q4 with the demutualisation out of the way.

"However, with figures 1% below consensus and a decent move in the shares we would buy on any weakness in the stock," which stands at a "significant discount" to the peer group rating, he said.

Charles Graham at Evolution Securities said that, at current levels, the shares "are not particularly cheap but the evidence to date is that Standard Life continues to make progress in transforming its business model. We keep our add recommendation".

However David Nisbet at Merrill Lynch said he regards the valuation as full and has a "neutral" recommendation on the shares despite edging up his sales growth forecast for the full year to 26%, against his previous estimate of 21%.

He highlighted a 7% increase in the shares over the past month, partly, he believes, on takeover speculation."

[url=http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1d&s=SL.L&l=on
&z=m&q=l&c=&c=%5EFTSE]Really weird last hour of dealings[/url]
Up to 295p and straight back down again, Grand old Duke of York style.

Ian_W

My sell order is in - if they reach the right price before the end of November that is!

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Well it certainly beats Farepak as a means of saving for Christmas .

Scotsman - 56% rise in Standard Life policies offsets defections

".......The star of the show was self-invested personal pensions (SIPPs) :clap: , which jumped by 109 per cent to £182m.......

Standard Life Assurance chief executive Trevor Matthews said he was "thrilled" with the results.

"We are 35 per cent up on the nine months compared to the same period a year earlier and it's in products that we want to write - potentially profitable products," he added......

.....Standard Life continues to be haunted by the prospects of departing policyholders. In September, the Edinburgh-based insurer announced it was setting aside £100m provision for customers cashing in policies.......

.........Analysts have been a little concerned, both that the worldwide figures were slightly below expectations and the problem of the lapses has not yet gone away.

Peter Eliot at Man Securities said: "They said they and the rest of the market would take a good look at their assumptions at the year end. The implication is there is a persistency issue here and we could easily see more strengthening [of provisions] coming through.

"Overall, today's news is negative for sentiment. The overall numbers were relatively in line, but certainly not a great deal of comfort was had."

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Herald - Crombie is understandably bullish but other commentators have their doubts

"....brokers ... Bear Sterns,....advised switching out of Standard to rivals Friends Provident and Legal & General.

"......Bruno Paulson, of Sanford Bernstein, said in a note: "We are sceptical that the lapses [the high rate of existing policy encashments / transfers] will drop as the management expects in mid-2007." Crombie said that there was "nothing concerning" in the figures from Canada, where the decline was blamed on 'management actions to reorientate towards profitable lines' and a good start had been made to the final quarter. Standard Life Investments lifted total
funds under management to £129.7bn with third-party funds up 19%.

Richard Hunter, of broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "Given the performance of the shares to date, the fact that there are considered to be better opportunities elsewhere in the sector and along with the pension lapse concerns, the market tone is currently that Standard Life shares are becoming a rather weak hold."

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David_Nisbet_at_Merrill_Lynch wrote:

He highlighted a 7% increase in the shares over the past month, partly, he believes, on takeover speculation.

Yahoo

Axa rules out a big UK acquisition like Standard Life

"....the French insurance group, has ruled out making a big acquisition in the UK for its life assurance and savings business, says the Financial Times citing an interview with Denis Duverne, AXA's chief financial officer......

........'We do not believe that we need to do anything major in terms of strategic moves in the UK that would require recourse to our shareholders.'.."

bugbod

Ian_W wrote:

My sell order is in - if they reach the right price before the end of November that is!

I'd like to do that too, how do I go about it, please? I'm completely green.
I'm registered with Computershare.

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They say that you can set a sell target price on Computershare. Go to https://www.computershare.com and select share dealing and then Standard Life from the drop down box at the bottom of the page under the section Find out more

Computershare wrote:

Internet Share Dealing
The fee for this service will be 0.5% of the value of the transaction (subject to a minimum of £15).
Limit orders (available for sales only and subject to availability) - there are no additional charges for this service.

Select internet options
Fill in your details very carefully (eg no gap in postcode - and you don't need the SLF code after your number) as otherwise the service will block you out.

Then Select
Option 2: Sell Shares when price reaches a certain price (Limit Order)
which looks to be currently available.

Ian_W

Actually RI - there IS a space in the postcode [or at least that worked for me] and what looks like a | before the shareholder reference number is actually a capital "I" - you pointed both these out in a much earlier post BTW. Otherwise as you describe - not reached my sell at price yet, here's hoping!

As for AXA ruling out a purchase - well they would say that wouldn't they!