The shares of Standard Life (LSE: SL) dropped by 3% to 358p in early London trade this morning after the pension giant’s third-quarter results came in marginally below analyst expectations.
Standard Life’s fee-based revenues jumped by 15%, while Assets Under Administration expanded by 9%, both a percentage point lower than the market had expected.
Looking ahead, the company highlighted the expected benefits of the government’s new auto-enrolment pension rules, which Standard expects will boost the firm’s asset inflows in the coming years.
Standard Life chief executive David Nish added:
“Standard Life has made good progress in the first nine months of the year, delivering substantial growth in net flows, assets and fee based revenue… We look forward to the future as our propositions, distribution capability and strong balance sheet mean we are confident we can deliver ongoing improvements in value for our customers and shareholders.”
With a market cap of £8.6bn, Standard’s shares trade at 15 times their expected earnings, and offer a prospective dividend yield of 4.5%.
Of course, whether that valuation, today’s update and the future prospects for the pensions industry all combine to make shares of Standard Chartered a ‘buy’ remains your decision.
