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Compelling Reasons to Hold on to Corebridge (CRBG) Stock Now

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Corebridge Financial, Inc. (CRBG - Free Report) is aided by growing premiums attributable to a diversified product suite and new business growth. Partnerships, strong segmental contribution and solid cash-generating abilities are additional tailwinds for the stock.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Corebridge currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

The stock has gained 24.8% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 6.8% growth. The Zacks Finance sector and the S&P 500 composite have increased 4.9% and 4.5%, respectively, in the same time frame.

Zacks Investment Research
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Favorable Style Score

CRBG is well-poised for progress, as evidenced by its impressive VGM Score of A. Here V stands for Value, G for Growth and M for Momentum, and the score is a weighted combination of all three factors.

Robust Growth Prospects

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Corebridge’s 2024 earnings is pegged at $4.93 per share, indicating an improvement of 21.5% from the 2023 estimate.

The consensus mark for revenues is $22.3 billion, suggesting 8.8% growth from the 2023 estimate. 

Decent Earnings Surprise History

CRBG’s bottom line surpassed earnings estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 11.70%.

Solid Return on Equity

The return on equity for Corebridge is currently 24.2%, which is higher than the industry’s average of 13.3%. The figure substantiates the company’s efficiency in utilizing shareholders’ funds.

Business Tailwinds

The top line of Corebridge continues to gain on the back of higher premiums and net investment income. Premiums, being the most significant contributor to any insurer’s revenues, surged 72.3% year over year in the first nine months of 2023 for CRBG. This revenue component witnesses steady growth from the traditional life insurance and annuity product suite of CRBG. Increased policy sales and high retention rates also contribute to premium growth.

Meanwhile, higher yields earned from the investment portfolio also continue to drive top-line growth of Corebridge. The company’s enhanced advisory platform provides full-service investment and retirement planning services to long-term clients and their families, thereby fetching an uninterrupted flow of advisory fee income. An aging U.S. population is expected to sustain the solid demand for the retirement planning services provided by CRBG in the days ahead.

Corebridge offers a diversified product and services suite through its Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance and Institutional Markets businesses. The combined expertise of the four business units continues to generate significant cash flows for CRBG. It adds lucrative features and options to its product portfolio, which in turn, reflects efforts to meet the evolving needs of the customer base.

Corebridge pursues tie-ups to enhance its product portfolio and expand market reach. The strategic partnership with Blackstone (BX - Free Report) is meant to impart CRBG the strength of originating attractive and privately sourced fixed-income oriented assets and hence, attain a competitive edge over its industry peers. It also does not shy away from divestitures that release capital and enable CRBG to intensify its focus on core operations.

The insurer undertakes technology investments, which seem time opportune in the light of widespread adoption of digital means across every sphere of life. Progress in digitizing the advisors’ end-to-end toolkits of CRBG bears testament to one such investment that will inevitably provide seamless interactive experiences, new business and higher participant enrollment.

In addition to funds received from divestitures, strong cash reserves and robust operating cash flows equip Corebridge to pursue uninterrupted business investments. It generated operating cash flows of $2.6 billion in the first nine months of 2023, which advanced 20.5% from the prior-year comparable period.

The financial strength also imparts the power to return more value to shareholders through share buybacks and dividend payments. In December 2023, CRBG bought back common shares worth $150 million from American International Group (AIG - Free Report) and a BX affiliate. Its dividend yield of 3.8% remains higher than the industry’s figure of 2.6%. 

Stocks to Consider

A better-ranked stock in the insurance space is CNA Financial Corporation (CNA - Free Report) , currently sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

CNA Financial’s earnings surpassed estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed the mark once, the average surprise being 9.24%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CNA’s 2024 earnings indicates a rise of 15.9% while the consensus mark for revenues suggests an improvement of 3% from the corresponding 2023 estimate. The consensus mark for CNA's 2024 earnings has moved 6.9% north in the past seven days. Its shares have gained 11.3% in the past six months.

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