Legal & General (LGEN): Time to buy this insurance stock?

3 min read | March 11, 2022 08:41 PM AEDT | By Priya Bhandari

Highlights

  • Legal and General agreed on a bulk annuity deal worth £225 with Newell Rubbermaid UK Pension Scheme.
  • The British life insurer and asset management company reported an 11% rise in its operating profit excluding mortality reserve release to £2.26 billion, up from £2.04 billion.

Legal & General Group Plc (LON: LGEN), the FTSE 100-listed global financial services and asset management company, has agreed on a pension deal with Newell Rubbermaid UK Pension Scheme.

Pension Deal

One of the leading players in the UK bulk annuity market has agreed to a £225 (US$296.42 million) bulk annuity deal with Newell Rubbermaid UK Pension Scheme. In 2021, Legal and General Group Plc secured a total of £7.2 billion worth of pension risk transfer (PRT) new business premiums across 57 transactions globally, down from £8.8 billion in 2020.

Some industry player in UK expects record levels of bulk annuity deals this year of nearly £50 billion, as many of such schemes are in deficit, and companies are anxious to offload risk from their balance sheets. 

Financial performance -2021

The British life insurer and asset management company reported an 11% rise in its operating profit excluding mortality reserve release to £2.26 billion, up from £2.04 billion, as its diversified business model benefitted from the easing of Covid restrictions and the post-pandemic recovery.

Its pre-tax profit attributable to its equity holders surged by 39% to £2.49 billion, from £1.79 billion in 2020, reflecting positive investment variance of £233 million, as compared to a loss of £394 million in 2020, which was impacted by rising interest rates on Legal & General Insurance (LGI) reserves. However, the company’s total income fell to £45.45 billion from £50.23 billion in 2020.

Legal and General declared a dividend of 18.45p in 2021, up by 5% from 17.57p in 2020, consistent with its stated ambition to grow the dividend in a range of 3-6 per cent. Company’s cash and capital generation along with book value per share (BV/S), all moved higher by over 10% year on year.  In 2021 Legal and General delivered a return on equity (ROE) of 20.5%, while it’s earning per share (EPS) stood at 34.19p and dividend per share (DPS) of 18.45p.

Its Solvency II operational surplus generation from continuing operations was up by 12% to £1.64 billion, from £1.46 billion in 2020, and the Solvency II coverage ratio increased by 187% from 175% at the end of 2020.

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Share price performance

The British life insurer and asset management company, Legal & General Group Plc (LON: LGEN), holds a market cap of £15,278.42 million as of 11 March 2022.

Legal & General Group Plc’s share’s last trading price was at GBX 255.90 on 10 March 2022.

Note: The above content constitutes a very preliminary observation or view based on industry trends and is of limited scope without any in-depth fundamental valuation or technical analysis. Any interest in stocks or sectors should be thoroughly evaluated taking into consideration the associated risks.


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