Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX: MFG) shares are 5% lower at $48.04 today despite the international equities manager not releasing any specific news to the market. This kind of move for a blue-chip share on no news is unusual, but could be related to a broker rating change.
Brokers may be updating their earnings forecasts on the back of assumptions over how much in the way of performance fees Magellan may earn for the six-month period ending December 31 2019.
Its flagship Magellan Global Fund is only 0.89% ahead of its benchmark over the last six-month reporting period and 2.17% behind the benchmark over the three-month reporting period.
Other funds have also delivered only modest performance over the current fiscal year.
However, Magellan is set to report another spectacular half of funds under management growth. This is the key operating metric to watch, although investment performance is also very important.
Magellan is also reportedly working on a retirement income product that solves what it describes as 'sequencing risk'. Given the secrecy around the product it's unlikely analysts are factoring its launch into their existing earnings estimates.
