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How to buy China Life Insurance Company stock
Own China Life Insurance Company stock in just a few minutes.
Fact checked
China Life Insurance Company Limited is an insurance-life business based in the US. China Life Insurance Company shares (LFC) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. China Life Insurance Company employs 103,826 staff and has a market cap (total outstanding shares value) of USD$128.7 billion.
How to buy shares in China Life Insurance Company
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for China Life Insurance Company. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: LFC. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until China Life Insurance Company reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of China Life Insurance Company, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of China Life Insurance Company. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
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What's in this guide?
- LFC shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is LFC stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short LFC shares?
- Are LFC shares over-valued?
- China Life Insurance Company's financials
- How volatile are LFC shares?
- Does China Life Insurance Company pay a dividend?
- Have LFC shares ever split?
- Other common questions
China Life Insurance Company share price
Use our graph to track the performance of LFC stocks over time.China Life Insurance Company shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-02-24.
| 52-week range | USD$7.8808 - USD$13.63 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$10.9903 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$11.4561 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$15.36 |
| PE ratio | 16.3156 |
| Dividend yield | USD$0.061 (0.56%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$0.665 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy China Life Insurance Company stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Is China Life Insurance Company under- or over-valued?
Valuing China Life Insurance Company stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of China Life Insurance Company's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
China Life Insurance Company's P/E ratio
China Life Insurance Company's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 16x. In other words, China Life Insurance Company shares trade at around 16x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
China Life Insurance Company's PEG ratio
China Life Insurance Company's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 3.1256. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into China Life Insurance Company's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
China Life Insurance Company financials
| Gross profit TTM | USD$123.8 billion |
|---|---|
| Return on assets TTM | 1.23% |
| Return on equity TTM | 11.9% |
| Profit margin | 5.9% |
| Book value | $8.885 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$128.7 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting China Life Insurance Company shares
There are currently 1.6 million China Life Insurance Company shares held short by investors – that's known as China Life Insurance Company's "short interest". This figure is 63.1% up from 983,714 last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting China Life Insurance Company shares can be evaluated.
China Life Insurance Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
China Life Insurance Company's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of China Life Insurance Company shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of China Life Insurance Company shares traded daily (recently around 442120.11019284). China Life Insurance Company's SIR currently stands at 3.63. In other words for every 100,000 China Life Insurance Company shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3630 shares are currently held short.
However China Life Insurance Company's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of China Life Insurance Company shares, or, against the total number of tradable China Life Insurance Company shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case China Life Insurance Company's short interest could be expressed as 0% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 China Life Insurance Company shares in existence, roughly 0 shares are currently held short) or 0% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable China Life Insurance Company shares, roughly 0 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against China Life Insurance Company.
Find out more about how you can short China Life Insurance Company stock.
China Life Insurance Company share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 89.47% of net profits
Recently China Life Insurance Company has paid out, on average, around 89.47% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 4.7% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), China Life Insurance Company shareholders could enjoy a 4.7% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In China Life Insurance Company's case, that would currently equate to about $0.061 per share.
China Life Insurance Company's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.
China Life Insurance Company's most recent dividend payout was on 2 September 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 6 July 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have China Life Insurance Company's shares ever split?
China Life Insurance Company's shares were split on a 3:1 basis on 27 May 2015. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 3 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your China Life Insurance Company shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 66.7% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for China Life Insurance Company shares which in turn could have impacted China Life Insurance Company's share price.
China Life Insurance Company share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, China Life Insurance Company's shares have ranged in value from as little as $7.8808 up to $13.63. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while China Life Insurance Company's is 1.0803. This would suggest that China Life Insurance Company's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
China Life Insurance Company overview
China Life Insurance Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a life insurance company in the People's Republic of China. It operates in four segments: Life Insurance Business, Health Insurance Business, Accident Insurance Business, and Other Businesses. The company offers individual and group life, annuity contracts, accident, and health insurance products. It is also involved in the third-party asset management, annuity funds, fund management, investment management, pension security, occupational pension, and reinsurance businesses. China Life Insurance Company Limited sells its products through agents, direct sales representatives, and dedicated and non-dedicated agencies. The company was founded in 1949 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. China Life Insurance Company Limited is a subsidiary of China Life Insurance (Group) Company Limited.
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