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Here's Why You Should Invest in Lincoln National (LNC) Now

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Lincoln National Corporation (LNC - Free Report) is well-poised for growth considering its improving revenues, diversified product portfolio and strong financial position. These factors are likely to instill investor confidence in the stock.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Lincoln National carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), at present.

The stock has surged 86.2% in a year compared with the industry’s and Finance sector’s growth of 4.5% and 38.6%, respectively. The S&P Index rallied 30.4% in the same time frame.

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Style Score

The company is well positioned for progress, as evident from its favorable VGM Score of B. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum, with the score being a weighted combination of all three factors.

It has an impressive Value Score of B, which reflects an attractive valuation of the stock.

Robust Prospects

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2021 earnings suggests a significant growth of 131.9% from the prior-year’s reported figure. The consensus mark for 2021 revenues indicates improvement of 5.8% from the year-ago reported figure.

Positive Estimate Revision

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 earnings has been revised north by 10.5% in the past 30 days.

Valuation

Price-to-book (P/B) is one of the multiples used for valuing insurance stocks. Compared with the life insurance’ industry trailing 12-month P/B ratio of 2.6, Lincoln National has a reading of 0.6. It is quite evident that the stock is currently undervalued.

Business Tailwinds

The company’s revenues have been gaining momentum on the back of higher insurance premiums, which have been improving consistently since 2010 except for 2016 and 2020. Strong performances exhibited at Annuities, Retirement Plan Services, Life Insurance and Group Protection segments also contributed to the top-line growth in the first half of 2021.

Lincoln National continues to roll out a range of cost-effective products and upgrade the existing ones, which has boosted sales. It has resorted to several initiatives to address diversified financial goals of clients through launching variable universal life (VUL) insurance offerings.

A diversified business portfolio places Lincoln National well on track to witness sales growth in 2021. There is a booming demand for insurance and protection products resulting from the COVD-19 pandemic induced volatilities, which offers the perfect scenario for the company to bank on. It is also shifting focus toward non-guaranteed products, which is expected to lower the company’s risk profile.

The liquidity position of the life insurer looks strong, with a solid cash balance and declining debt levels. This has helped the company in pursuing several growth-related efforts and prudently deploying capital through share buybacks and dividend hikes.

Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks in the life insurance space include Brighthouse Financial, Inc. (BHF - Free Report) , Primerica, Inc. (PRI - Free Report) and Athene Holding Ltd. , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Brighthouse Financial, Primerica and Athene have a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 52.23%, 7.55% and 47.78%, on average, respectively.


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Lincoln National Corporation (LNC) - free report >>

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