Is a Beat in the Cards for Principal Financial in Q3 Earnings?
In This Article:
Principal Financial Group, Inc. PFG is slated to report third-quarter 2024 earnings on Oct. 24, after market close. PFG delivered a negative earnings surprise in the last reported quarter.
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Factors at Play
Principal Financial’s third-quarter results are likely to reflect a rise in fee revenues, higher yields, favorable market performance and higher sales of single premium group annuities.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter 2024 revenues is pegged at $3.92 billion, indicating an improvement of 12.7% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
Premiums and other considerations are likely to have increased for the Retirement and Income Solutions segment, owing to higher sales of single premium group annuities with life contingencies.
Fees and other revenues are likely to have increased for the Benefits and Protection segment due to growth in the Life Insurance business.
Revenues in the Retirement and Income Solutions segment are likely to have increased due to an increase in variable investment income and fee revenues stemming from a rise in average monthly account values, which resulted from more favorable financial markets.
Investment income is expected to have benefited from higher yields and average invested assets in fixed maturities and cash in U.S. operations.
However, foreign currency headwinds and unfavorable relative market performance on required regulatory investments in our Latin America business are expected to have brought down the figure in the third quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for net investment income is pegged at $1.1 billion, suggesting an increase of 12.2% from the year-ago reported figure. We expect investment income to increase 0.7% to $996.5 million.
Assets under management are likely to have benefited from strong sales and favorable market performance. Expenses are likely to have increased due to an increase in reserves, stemming from higher sales of single premium group annuities with life contingencies. We expect total expenses to be $3.4 billion.
Operating expenses are likely to have improved due to higher compensation costs and nondeferrable commission expense. We expect operating expenses to be $1.2 billion.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter earnings is pegged at $2.01 per share, suggesting an increase of 16.8% from the prior-year quarter’s reported figure.
What Our Quantitative Model Predicts
Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Principal Financial this time around. This is because a stock needs to have the right combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) that increases the odds of an earnings beat.
Earnings ESP: Principal Financial has an Earnings ESP of +0.20%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate of $2.02 is pegged higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.01. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
