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The Hartford has elected Priscilla Almodovar to its board of directors, effective September 1. She will join the committees responsible for overseeing the company's finances, investments, risk management, and audits. Almodovar previously served as the president and CEO of Fannie Mae, a major government-sponsored firm that supports the mortgage market. Her background in large-scale financial services and risk management is a natural fit for an insurance company, where managing investment portfolios and assessing long-term risk are the core of the business.
Source: 8-K filing
The Hartford is buying Equitable's employee benefits unit, adding about $500 million in annual premiums. This business focuses on providing life and disability insurance to small and midsize companies, which is a core area where The Hartford already has a strong presence.
This deal helps the company grow its group benefits arm, a high-margin unit that is a key part of its earnings. By folding in more customers, it can spread its costs over a larger base and use its existing data to price these new policies more accurately.
Source: Business Wire
The Hartford reported core earnings of $3.42 per share, which was higher than the $3.16 analysts expected. This performance was driven by growth in business insurance premiums and a combined ratio of 91.4 percent, meaning the company is paying out much less in claims than it collects in premiums.
Management also authorized a new $4.2 billion share buyback program. This is a 27 percent increase over the previous plan and shows the company is generating plenty of cash to return to owners. For a mature insurer, these buybacks are a primary way to grow earnings per share over time even when the industry is not growing quickly.
See the full quarter, and how our tracked metrics did
Source: 8-K filing
The company has a very reliable habit of beating analyst profit targets, often by a wide margin. This suggests management is conservative with its forecasts and the business is performing better than expected.
| Expectation | |
|---|---|
| EPS | $3.06 |
| Revenue | $7.27B |
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