# China Life Insurance Co Ltd A (601628.SHG)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/601628.SHG

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: CNY. Reporting currency: CNY.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: pass; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: CNY 34.55 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

Estimated value: low CNY 20.93 per share, central CNY 23.02 per share, high CNY 25.58 per share. Buy at or below the central value CNY 23.02 per share. Valuation as of 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z; scenarios are not confidence intervals.

Expected annual return: 6.7% at the stated quote. About 6.7% a year at today's price (required return 10.0%). required return 10.0% a year (10% floor; CN 10-year bond 1.7% + 4 points).

## Checklist

### understandable: pass

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 10

- Required profitable years: 8

- Return on common equity variation (informational): 0.52×

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: CNY 19B

- FY2017: CNY 32B

- FY2018: CNY 11B

- FY2019: CNY 58B

- FY2020: CNY 50B

- FY2021: CNY 51B

- FY2022: CNY 32B

- FY2023: CNY 51B

- FY2024: CNY 107B

- FY2025: CNY 154B

### moat: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: 10.9%

- Required median return: 10.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: No

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: 6.2%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 6.2%

- FY2017: 9.9%

- FY2018: 3.5%

- FY2019: 14.3%

- FY2020: 11.1%

- FY2021: 10.6%

- FY2022: 7.4%

- FY2023: 15.6%

- FY2024: 21.0%

- FY2025: 25.9%

### economics: pass

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 10.8%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: CNY 12.36

- Ending book value per share: CNY 21.05

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -8.8%

- FY2017: 9.5%

- FY2018: 11.6%

- FY2019: 24.2%

- FY2020: 16.8%

- FY2021: 11.2%

- FY2022: -3.0%

- FY2023: -20.1%

- FY2024: 63.6%

- FY2025: 22.1%

### management: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- book per share gain below retained common earnings per share

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.8%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: 0.2%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.8%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.2%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book created / earnings retained after dividends and buybacks: 0.71×

- Book value created per share: CNY 8.69

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: CNY 12.32

Chart: Shares (first year = 100); fiscal year observations.

- FY2015: 100

- FY2016: 109

- FY2017: 110

- FY2018: 102

- FY2019: 107

- FY2020: 107

- FY2021: 108

- FY2022: 108

- FY2023: 108

- FY2024: 108

- FY2025: 108

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

## Price story

Down 31% since Jan 2026 · net income +44.1%

Story as of 2026-10-16T09:59:56.867Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

The price assumes profits grow 3.3% a year forever

### Net income · FY2025

net income +44.1%; source https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/; observed 2026-10-16.

- FY2016: CNY 19B 

- FY2017: CNY 32B 

- FY2018: CNY 11B 

- FY2019: CNY 58B 

- FY2020: CNY 50B 

- FY2021: CNY 51B 

- FY2022: CNY 32B 

- FY2023: CNY 51B 

- FY2024: CNY 107B 

- FY2025: CNY 154B 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance life; annual sales are CNY 608.9 billion.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z); FY2025: revenue 608882000000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); 601628.SHG: China Life Insurance Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a life insurance company in the People's Republic of China. The company operates through Life Insurance Business, Health Insurance Business, Accident Insurance Business, and Other Businesses segments. It offers life, annuity, health, and accident insurance products to individuals and groups. The company was founded in 1949 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China. China Life Insurance Company Limited operates as a subsidiary of China Life Insurance (Group) Company.

### Why customers stay

It earns 10.9% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,0.06172497949746559],[2017,0.0993135638902824],[2018,0.03458543648761979],[2019,0.14338326349055389],[2020,0.11122171463106813],[2021,0.10596980342795594],[2022,0.07355405817469834],[2023,0.15615161203719521],[2024,0.20981017314955608],[2025,0.25886543291807024]]; median 0.10859575902951203. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z); Dividend observations: [[2016,17299000000],[2017,12970000000],[2018,15829000000],[2019,8247000000],[2020,24774000000],[2021,26680000000],[2022,26386000000],[2023,22189000000],[2024,26915000000],[2025,26602000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 0.6% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); 601628.SHG SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 0.611 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price assumes profits grow 3.3% a year forever.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16T07:33:36.268Z); Price 34.55; FX 1; original perpetual distributable cash 2.3021897200153747; discount 0.1; growth 0.03336643357408467. Same book-value model and 4× ceiling; no ten-year operating fade applies. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (CNY per share)

- 2016-10: CNY 21.83 per share

- 2016-11: CNY 25.79 per share

- 2016-12: CNY 24.09 per share

- 2017-01: CNY 25.72 per share

- 2017-02: CNY 25.67 per share

- 2017-03: CNY 25.30 per share

- 2017-04: CNY 26.13 per share

- 2017-05: CNY 28.08 per share

- 2017-06: CNY 26.98 per share

- 2017-07: CNY 27.60 per share

- 2017-08: CNY 29.27 per share

- 2017-09: CNY 27.74 per share

- 2017-10: CNY 31.40 per share

- 2017-11: CNY 30.98 per share

- 2017-12: CNY 30.45 per share

- 2018-01: CNY 30.26 per share

- 2018-02: CNY 26.86 per share

- 2018-03: CNY 25.41 per share

- 2018-04: CNY 24.51 per share

- 2018-05: CNY 24.56 per share

- 2018-06: CNY 22.52 per share

- 2018-07: CNY 23.45 per share

- 2018-08: CNY 22.10 per share

- 2018-09: CNY 22.68 per share

- 2018-10: CNY 21.87 per share

- 2018-11: CNY 21.58 per share

- 2018-12: CNY 20.39 per share

- 2019-01: CNY 22.76 per share

- 2019-02: CNY 28.38 per share

- 2019-03: CNY 28.32 per share

- 2019-04: CNY 30.08 per share

- 2019-05: CNY 26.12 per share

- 2019-06: CNY 28.32 per share

- 2019-07: CNY 29.69 per share

- 2019-08: CNY 28.85 per share

- 2019-09: CNY 27.48 per share

- 2019-10: CNY 33.45 per share

- 2019-11: CNY 32.81 per share

- 2019-12: CNY 34.87 per share

- 2020-01: CNY 32.26 per share

- 2020-02: CNY 29.45 per share

- 2020-03: CNY 26.34 per share

- 2020-04: CNY 28.54 per share

- 2020-05: CNY 25.60 per share

- 2020-06: CNY 27.21 per share

- 2020-07: CNY 36.49 per share

- 2020-08: CNY 43.68 per share

- 2020-09: CNY 44.43 per share

- 2020-10: CNY 46.08 per share

- 2020-11: CNY 42.41 per share

- 2020-12: CNY 38.39 per share

- 2021-01: CNY 36.15 per share

- 2021-02: CNY 33.16 per share

- 2021-03: CNY 31.82 per share

- 2021-04: CNY 33.07 per share

- 2021-05: CNY 36.40 per share

- 2021-06: CNY 33.89 per share

- 2021-07: CNY 28.00 per share

- 2021-08: CNY 28.84 per share

- 2021-09: CNY 29.80 per share

- 2021-10: CNY 29.80 per share

- 2021-11: CNY 29.55 per share

- 2021-12: CNY 30.09 per share

- 2022-01: CNY 27.56 per share

- 2022-02: CNY 28.78 per share

- 2022-03: CNY 26.24 per share

- 2022-04: CNY 25.45 per share

- 2022-05: CNY 24.85 per share

- 2022-06: CNY 31.08 per share

- 2022-07: CNY 27.87 per share

- 2022-08: CNY 30.70 per share

- 2022-09: CNY 31.63 per share

- 2022-10: CNY 26.60 per share

- 2022-11: CNY 36.15 per share

- 2022-12: CNY 37.12 per share

- 2023-01: CNY 34.04 per share

- 2023-02: CNY 35.77 per share

- 2023-03: CNY 33.29 per share

- 2023-04: CNY 39.00 per share

- 2023-05: CNY 37.34 per share

- 2023-06: CNY 34.96 per share

- 2023-07: CNY 36.67 per share

- 2023-08: CNY 35.63 per share

- 2023-09: CNY 36.26 per share

- 2023-10: CNY 33.60 per share

- 2023-11: CNY 30.04 per share

- 2023-12: CNY 28.35 per share

- 2024-01: CNY 28.74 per share

- 2024-02: CNY 30.33 per share

- 2024-03: CNY 28.50 per share

- 2024-04: CNY 30.66 per share

- 2024-05: CNY 31.35 per share

- 2024-06: CNY 31.05 per share

- 2024-07: CNY 32.20 per share

- 2024-08: CNY 33.38 per share

- 2024-09: CNY 44.00 per share

- 2024-10: CNY 41.88 per share

- 2024-11: CNY 42.10 per share

- 2024-12: CNY 41.92 per share

- 2025-01: CNY 40.60 per share

- 2025-02: CNY 38.91 per share

- 2025-03: CNY 37.60 per share

- 2025-04: CNY 36.31 per share

- 2025-05: CNY 38.29 per share

- 2025-06: CNY 41.19 per share

- 2025-07: CNY 40.92 per share

- 2025-08: CNY 42.08 per share

- 2025-09: CNY 39.64 per share

- 2025-10: CNY 43.97 per share

- 2025-11: CNY 43.52 per share

- 2025-12: CNY 45.50 per share

- 2026-01: CNY 49.72 per share

- 2026-02: CNY 44.48 per share

- 2026-03: CNY 36.34 per share

- 2026-04: CNY 36.67 per share

- 2026-05: CNY 33.83 per share

- 2026-06: CNY 35.35 per share

- 2026-07: CNY 39.52 per share

- 2026-08: CNY 38.50 per share

- 2026-09: CNY 36.70 per share

- 2026-10: CNY 35.38 per share

## Annual estimated value (CNY per share)

- FY2016: low CNY 11.15 per share, central CNY 13.56 per share, high CNY 17.30 per share

- FY2017: low CNY 11.14 per share, central CNY 13.48 per share, high CNY 17.06 per share

- FY2018: low CNY 10.88 per share, central CNY 13.06 per share, high CNY 16.34 per share

- FY2019: low CNY 13.32 per share, central CNY 15.99 per share, high CNY 20.00 per share

- FY2020: low CNY 14.67 per share, central CNY 17.95 per share, high CNY 23.14 per share

- FY2021: low CNY 16.27 per share, central CNY 20.03 per share, high CNY 26.06 per share

- FY2022: low CNY 14.85 per share, central CNY 18.29 per share, high CNY 23.79 per share

- FY2023: low CNY 11.17 per share, central CNY 12.29 per share, high CNY 13.65 per share

- FY2024: low CNY 17.53 per share, central CNY 19.28 per share, high CNY 21.43 per share

- FY2025: low CNY 20.92 per share, central CNY 23.02 per share, high CNY 25.57 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

Prior published observations retained from 2026-10-15T06:39:21.918Z where newer inputs omit a numeric field or fiscal period.

## Sources

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.

## Reported holder observations