Allstate Corporation’s (NYSE:ALL) fourth-quarter 2019 earnings of $3.13 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.32% and were up 152.4% year over year, led by increase in premiums and policies in force.
Revenues of $11.5 billion outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6.5%. The top line was up 21% year over year, driven by an increase in premiums.
Total expenses declined 9.3% year over year to $9.2 billion, driven by lower property and casualty insurance claims.
The Allstate Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
The company incurred catastrophe loss of $295 million, down 69.4% year over year.
Total policies in force as of Dec 31, 2019 were 145.9 million, up 27.7% year over year.
Net investment income of $689 million decreased 12.3% year over year.
Solid Segmental Performance
Property-Liability insurance premiums of $8.7 billion increased 4.4% year over year driven by policy growth and higher average premiums in the Allstate and Esurance brands. The segment’s underwriting income of $1000 million was up from $286 million in the year-ago quarter.
Service Business’ revenues were $434 million, up 21.9% year over year.
This upside was primarily driven by higher contribution from the company’s Protection Plans, Dealer Services and Arity business, partly offset by decline in premium from Roadside Services.
Allstate Life, Benefits and Annuities total premium and contract charges were $627 million, unchanged year over year, due to slightly higher contribution from Life and Benefits business, partly offset by decline in Annuities premium and contract charges.
Capital Position (as of Dec 31, 2019)
Total shareholders’ equity was $26 billion, up 22.1% year over year.
Total assets were $120 billion, up 6.9% year over year.
The company’s financial leverage position improved with a 480 basis point reduction in debt-to-equity ratio to 25.5%.
Adjusted return on equity of 16.9% was up 70 basis point year over year.
Adjusted book value per share was $67.29, up 17% year over year.
Share Buyback and Dividend Buyback
In 2019, the company returned $653 million to common shareholders in common stock dividends. It completed a $3 billion share repurchase program in January 2020.
Zacks Rank and Performance by Other Players
Allstate carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some other insurers that have recently reported earnings this season are Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) , The Progressive Corp. (NYSE:PGR) and Chubb Ltd. (NYSE:CB) , each beating their estimate by 2.17%, 58.8% and 8.6%, respectively.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
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