TIP SHEET / SALES PROS BULLISH ON MANULIFE

Shares of Manulife Financial Corp. are starting to look like a good idea to a lot of sales desks, which are pounding the table on the stock even though analysts are mostly avoiding "buy" calls.

The stock has been hammered after a couple of huge losses, reductions to the dividend and numerous capital raises. Analysts have mostly turned on the company.

Yet according to First Coverage, which tracks recommendations by sales professionals whose job it is to pitch ideas to big clients, sales desks are more bullish on Manulife than any other financial stock.

More than 250 sell-side firms provide ideas on First Coverage, which sifts through them to find out which stocks are in favour and which are out. You can see the full list of the most recent rankings at firstcoverage.com/stock_industry.php.

It's curious to see Manulife come up as one of the most bullish calls, because in the official analyst reports, it's not. According to Bloomberg, of the 15 analysts who cover the insurer, 12 rate it "hold" and only three rate it "buy."

Either the sales desks are way off base, or they are way ahead of the analysts.

MANULIFE FINANCIAL (MFC)

Close: $11.92, down 14¢