TORONTO, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Manulife Financial Corp MFC.TO , Canada's biggest insurer, on Wednesday reported a decline in fourth-quarter earnings, reflecting lower insurance sales and slower growth at its wealth and asset management business.
Manulife said earnings per share, excluding one-off items, were 59 Canadian cents in the final quarter of 2017, compared with 63 Canadian cents in the same period the previous year. Analysts had on average expected earnings of 58 Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.
Core earnings for the quarter were C$1.2 billion ($955 million), compared with C$1.3 billion the year before.
Insurance sales fell by 3 percent during the period to C$1 billion. The company generated net flows of C$3.7 billion in its wealth and asset management businesses, down from C$6.1 billion the year before, mainly due to lower net flows in institutional asset management.
Manulife announced a quarterly dividend of 22 Canadian cents, up 7 percent on the previous quarter.
($1 = 1.2561 Canadian dollars)