Yahoo Finance Voya Financial (VOYA) Q1 Earnings Surpass, Premiums Rise Y/Y
Voya Financial, Inc. VOYA reported first-quarter 2024 adjusted operating earnings of $1.88 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 18.9%. The bottom line, however, increased 11.2% year over year.
The quarterly results reflected an improvement in premiums and solid performances across most of the segments, offset by lower investment income and higher expenses.
Voya Financial, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Voya Financial, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Voya Financial, Inc. Quote
Behind the Headlines
Adjusted operating revenues amounted to $1.9 billion, up 8.9% year over year, driven by higher fee income, premiums and other revenues.
Net investment income declined 2.9% year over year to $529 million. Meanwhile, fee income of $513 million increased 10.5% year over year. Premiums totaled $800 million, up 16.8% from the year-ago quarter.|
Total benefits and expenses were $1.7 billion, up 4.1% from the year-ago quarter.
As of Mar 31, 2024, VOYA’s assets under management, assets under administration and advisement totaled $848.6 billion.
Segmental Update
Wealth Solutions reported pre-tax adjusted operating earnings of $186 million, which jumped 41% year over year, primarily due to favorable equity market impacts to fee-based revenues, higher alternative investment income and lower administrative expenses. It was partially offset by lower spread-based revenues. Full-service recurring deposits grew 7.6% to $4.2 billion, driven by a rise in both Corporate and Tax-Exempt markets.
Health Solutions’ pre-tax adjusted operating earnings amounted to $59 94 million, which plunged 37.2% year over year, primarily due to Stop Loss net underwriting gains normalizing after favorable results in the prior-year period. Annualized in-force premiums and fees grew 17% to $3.9 billion. The strong increase reflects growth across all product lines due to strong sales and favorable retention.
Investment Management posted pre-tax adjusted operating earnings of $42 million, which climbed 27.3% year over year, primarily due to higher net revenues reflecting the benefit of positive capital markets, strong sales in Retail and insurance, as well as lower administrative expenses. Net inflows were $0.6 billion during the three months ended Mar 31, 2024, driven by Retail flows and the insurance channel within Institutional.
Corporate incurred a pre-tax adjusted operating loss, excluding Allianz's noncontrolling interest, of $63 million, narrower than the year-ago quarter’s loss of $68 million. The improvement was largely attributable to lower interest expenses due to debt extinguishment.
Financial Update
Voya Financial exited the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $995 million, which jumped 37.4% year over year. Total investments amounted to $35.7 billion, down 7.8% year over year.
Long-term debt as of Mar 31, 2024, plunged 18.6% to $1.7 billion from the 2023-end level. The financial leverage ratio (excluding Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income) deteriorated 30 basis points year over year to 28.1%.
As of Mar 31, 2024, book value per share (excluding AOCI) was $59.33, which decreased 1% year over year.
Voya Financial exited the first quarter with more than $0.2 billion in excess capital.
Capital Deployment
As of Mar 31, 2024, VOYA had $225 million remaining under its share-repurchase authorization. In addition to this, the board has increased the company's authorization to repurchase shares under the company's share repurchase program by $500 million.
Zacks Rank
VOYA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Performance of Other Insurers
Unum Group’s UNM first-quarter 2024 operating net income of $2.12 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 7.6%. The bottom line increased 13.3% year over year. Total operating revenues of Unum Group were $3.2 billion, up 5.5% year over year, driven by higher premium income, net investment and other income. The top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.3%.
Premiums increased 6.1% from the prior-year quarter to $2.6 billion and were in line with our estimate. Total benefits and expenses rose 4.6% year over year to $2.7 billion. Our estimate was $2.6 billion.
Chubb Limited CB reported first-quarter 2024 core operating income of $5.41 per share, which outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.3%. The bottom line jumped 22.7% year over year. Net premiums written improved 14.1% year over year to $12.2 billion in the quarter. Our estimate was $11.4 billion, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at $13 billion.
Net investment income was $1.4 billion, up 25.7% year over year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at $1.3 billion, while our estimate for the same was $1.4 billion. Property and Casualty (P&C) underwriting income was $1.4 billion, up 16.7% year over year. Global P&C underwriting income, excluding Agriculture, was $1.3 billion, up 10.9%.
RLI Corp. RLI reported first-quarter 2024 operating earnings of $1.89 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate as well as the year-ago number by 16%. Operating revenues for the reported quarter were $394 million, up 17.6% year over year, driven by 17% higher net premiums earned and 21.3% higher net investment income. The top line, however, missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.1%.
Gross premiums written increased 13% year over year to $468 million. This uptick can be attributed to the solid performance of the Casualty (up 12.6%), Property (up 13.5%) and Surety segments (up 12.1%). Our estimate was $511 million. Underwriting income of $77.7 million climbed 16%. The combined ratio deteriorated 60 bps year over year to 78.5. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the metric was pegged at 85, while our estimate was 77.7.
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