Assurant Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) is poised for long-term growth on the back of expanding housing and lifestyle businesses, effective business restructuring and prudent capital deployment. The company has an impressive Growth Score of A. This style score analyzes the growth prospects of a company.
Assurant has been pursuing strategic initiatives to expand its housing and lifestyle businesses. It envisions earnings growth and margin expansion at the Lifestyle segment through a combination of profitable growth and operating efficiencies worldwide
The company is realigning its business targeting higher growth at Global Housing segment. This is because the company is facing headwinds related to lender-places business.
Assurant expects growth at Connected Living and Global Automotive to continue to drive top line improvement at Global Lifestyle. The company is enhancing the Connected Living platform with innovative products and services and adding new partnerships with leading brands. These initiatives are projected to double the margins in Connected Living to 8% over the long term.
The company’s inorganic growth story remains impressive, adding capabilities to its compelling product portfolio.
Assurant has a disciplined capital management policy in place. It intends to utilize 50% of its free cash flow to repurchase shares. The company also has a solid track of increasing dividend each year. Its dividend yield of 2.6% betters the industry yield of 2.3%.
This premier provider of specialized insurance products in North America and other selected overseas markets sports an impressive VGM Score of A. Back-tested results show that stocks with a favorable Value Score of A or B coupled with a solid Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and 2 (Buy) offer the best investment opportunity.
Its valuation looks attractive at the current level as the price-to-book multiple of 1.1 is lower than the industry average of 1.3. The company has an impressive Value Score of A. Value Score helps to find undervalued stocks.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #2 insurer have lost nearly 3% in a year compared with the industry’s decrease of 22.3% and the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s decline of 6.7%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2019 earnings is pegged at $8.48 per share, indicating 44.2% year-over-year increase on 18.6% revenue growth. The company has a solid track of outperforming earnings expectations in the last eight quarters, reflecting operational excellence.
Other Stocks to Consider
Investors interested in multiline insurers can look at MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) , Cigna Corporation (NYSE:CI) and MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET) .
MGIC Investment provides private mortgage insurance and ancillary services to lenders and government sponsored entities in the United States. The company delivered a 33.33% positive surprise in the last reported quarter. The stock sports a Zacks Rank #1. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Cigna provides health services such as medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, vision, supplemental benefits, among others. The company delivered a 11.30% positive surprise in the last reported quarter. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.
MetLife engages in insurance, annuities, employee benefits, and asset management businesses. It came up with 10.40% positive surprise in the last reported quarter. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2.
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