The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Bank of Nova Scotia analyst Meny Grauman calls Manulife Financial one of his "top picks." The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Grauman continues to rank Manulife "sector outperform." He gave his share target a $5 boost to $35. Analysts on average target the shares at $30.51. Mr. Grauman says in a note: "For a long time now, Manulife was perceived to be a value-trap as the shares spent years hovering around the $21/share mark. However, in the wake of a normalization in long-term yields and December's landmark LTC [long-term care] sale, we believe that it is now a true value name with significant upside, even in the wake of an impressive run over the past three months. The gap between realized and expected ALDA returns remains a key issue for the quarter, but at this juncture we don't see a trigger for the company to change its return assumptions. Another issue is performance in Asia, which remains under the microscope given macro challenges in China and concerns about a possible conflict with Taiwan. That said, performance in this segment has been good, fueled by strong sales in Hong Kong's MCV (Mainland Chinese Visitor) market."