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Voya Financial (VOYA) Q4 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates

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Voya Financial’s (VOYA - Free Report) fourth-quarter 2020 normalized adjusted operating earnings of $1.44 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.7%. Moreover, the bottom line increased 21% year over year. The results reflect solid performance in Retirement and Investment Management, partially offset by soft performance at Employee Benefits segment.

Full-year 2020 normalized adjusted operating earnings of $4.81 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.75. The bottom line increased 14% year over year.

Quarterly Highlights

Total revenues improved 44.2% year over year to $398 million. Moreover, the top line beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 59.2%.

Net investment income increased 12.2% to $825 million in the quarter.

Fee income increased 7.8% year over year to $550 million. Premiums rose 7.4% to $597 million.

Total benefits and expenses decreased 0.1% year over year to $1.7 billion due to lower operating expenses, lower interest expense, net amortization of DAC/VOBA and interest credited and other benefits to contract owners/policyholders.

Assets under management and administration were $700 billion as of Dec 31, 2020.

Voya Financial, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

Segmental Update

Retirement’s adjusted operating earnings of $258 million increased 59.3% year over year driven by favorable DAC/VOBA and other intangibles unlocking, higher fee-based margin and higher investment income, partially offset by higher administrative expenses.

Investment Management posted adjusted operating earnings of $90 million, up 52.5% year over year due to increased fee-based margin, and increased investment capital revenues, partially offset by higher administrative expenses.

Employee Benefits’ adjusted operating earnings were $50 million, down 9.1% year over year attributable to lower underwriting results and higher administrative expenses. Higher investment income limited the downside.

Corporate incurred adjusted operating losses of $94 million, narrower than the year-ago quarterly loss of $98 million, owing to lower intangibles amortization.

Financial Update

As of Dec 31, 2020, cash and cash equivalents were $1.5 billion, up 27.2% year over year.

As of Dec 31, 2020, total investments were $56.9 billion, up 5.9% year over year.

At 2020 end, long-term debt was $3 billion, up 0.03% from 2019 end.

Adjusted debt to capital improved 270 basis points to 27.9% from 2019 end.

As of Sep 30, 2020, book value per share (excluding AOCI) was $37.71, down 7.6% from 2019 end.

Voya Financial exited 2020 with $1.8 billion in excess capital.

Estimated combined RBC ratio was 498% as on Dec 31, 2020.

Share Buyback Update

Voya repurchased $526 million worth shares in 2020. The board of directors also approved $1 billion share buyback program for 2021. Voya currently has about $1.1 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization.

2021 Guidance

Voya estimates normalized adjusted operating earnings per share to grow 8-12%.

Zacks Rank

Voya Financial 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 Life Insurers

Fourth-quarter earnings of Reinsurance Group of America (RGA - Free Report) beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate while that of Lincoln Financial (LNC - Free Report) and Primerica (PRI - Free Report) missed the same.

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