Manulife Financial (NYSE: MFC) reported Q1 EPS of $0.76, $0.26 better than the analyst estimate of $0.50.

Today, Manulife announced its 1Q19 results. Key highlights include:

• Net income attributed to shareholders of $2.2 billion in 1Q19, up $0.8 billion from 1Q18
• Core earnings1 of $1.5 billion in 1Q19, up 15%2 from 1Q18
• Core ROE1 of 14.2% in 1Q19 compared with 13.4% in 1Q18
• 2.1 percentage point improvement in our 1Q19 expense efficiency ratio1 to 49.9%
• NBV1 of $0.5 billion in 1Q19, up 31% from 1Q18
• APE sales1 of $1.7 billion in 1Q19, up 23% from 1Q18
• WAM net outflows1 of $1.3 billion in 1Q19 compared with net inflows of $10.0 billion in 1Q18
• Strong LICAT ratio3 of 144%

"We delivered another quarter of strong core earnings and net income, both of which achieved solid double-digit growth over last year," said Manulife President & Chief Executive Officer Roy Gori. "New business value grew 31% with double-digit increases across all of our operating segments. And while net flows were negative, they improved significantly from the prior quarter."

"We continue to make progress in the execution of our digital customer-centric strategy, including the roll-out of our electronic claims systems in Asia, as well as an industry-first voice-enabled retirement product in the U.S.," added Mr. Gori.

Phil Witherington, Chief Financial Officer, said, "We continued to optimize our portfolio during the quarter, which included the cumulative release of over $2 billion of capital from the sale of alternative long-duration assets, exceeding our target."

"Our efficiency initiatives are delivering bottom line benefits with expenses held at the same level as the prior year and our expense efficiency ratio improving to 49.9%. We are in a strong capital position and have redeemed debt in the quarter, contributing to the improvement in our leverage ratio to 27%," added Mr. Witherington.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Manulife Financial (MFC) click here.