Weekly Outlook: Full-year results for Legal & General and Beazley

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04 March 2024

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Hannah Williford

Monday 4 March

Full-year results from Senior and Clarkson
First-half results from Craneware
US new homes sales
In Europe, quarterly results from Henkel and Evonik

Tuesday 5 March

Full-year results from Intertek, Greggs, Travis Perkins, Keller, IWG, Hiscox, STV, Reach, Inchcape, Foxtons and Bakkavor
BRC UK retail sales monitor
Purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) for services industries from Asia, Europe, the UK and US
EU producer price (factory gate) inflation
US factory orders
In Asia, quarterly results from JD.com
In Europe, quarterly results from Thales, Lindt and Brembo
In the US, quarterly results from Target, Ferguson and Franco-Nevada

Wednesday 6 March

Full-year results from Convatec, Spirent, Tullow Oil, Lancashire, Nichols, CLS, Breedon and Capita
First-half results from Galliford Try and Ricardo
Trading statements from DS Smith and Endeavour Mining
UK Budget
Purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the UK construction industry
EU retail sales
ADP US payrolls data
US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS)
US oil inventories
US Federal Reserve Beige Book
Interest rate decision from the Bank of Canada
In Europe, quarterly results from Jeronimo Martins, AIB, Teleperformance and Pirelli
In the US, quarterly results from Brown-Forman, Campbell’s Soup and FootLocker

Legal & General will produce its full-year results on Wednesday following the exit of chief executive Sir Nigel Wilson at the end of 2023.

The full-year results will be compared to the company’s 2020-2024 plan which included capital generation of £8bn to £9bn, dividend per share growth of 3-6% each year, total dividend payments of £5.6bn to £5.9bn, and surplus capital generation above the dividend. The company is now led by Antonio Simoes.

Russ Mould, AJ Bell investment director, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis, and Dan Coatsworth, AJ Bell investment analyst, said: “Moreover, the company intends to achieve all of this while embracing what it terms Inclusive Capitalism and establishing itself as a leader in ESG – or environmental, social and governance – investing. It will be interesting to see if Mr Simoes refines Legal & General’s position here at all.”

Legal & General holds a benchmark divisional operating profit of £2.9bn, the amount the company reached in 2022.

“Analysts will then dig into the details of the performance of Legal & General’s four divisions – Institutional Retirement, Capital, Investment Management and Retail savings, insurance and pensions,” the AJ Bell team said.

“Particular features to note here will be new business flows in bulk annuities, the performance of alternative asset investments, net fund flows (passive and active) at the investment management operation and the impact of rising interest rates on bond and equity portfolios.”

Eyes will also be on earnings per share, which hit 38.3p in 2022, and dividends, where analysts expect a 5% increase to 20.34p per share for 2023.

Thursday 7 March

Full-year results from Aviva, Rentokil Initial, Fresnillo, Melrose Industries, Spirax, ITV, Pagegroup, Robert Walters, Grafton, Funding Circle and H&T
First-half results from Kier, Darktrace and Revolution Bars
Halifax UK house price index
German factory orders
Monetary policy decision from the European Central Bank
Challenger, Gray & Christmas US job losses survey
US weekly initial unemployment claims
In Asia, quarterly results from Prada
In Europe, quarterly results from Continental, Vivendi and Lufthansa
In the US, quarterly results from CostCo, Oracle and Kroger

Beazley, a global specialist insurer which works with seven Lloyd’s of London syndicates across cybercrime, executive risk, political risk, property and other areas, will release its full-year results on 7 March.

It entered the FTSE 100 in December 2022, but has had a relatively unchanged share price since that time.

“This may be because Non-life Insurance stocks are not the easiest to research, can be prey to sudden shocks and unexpected events, and may be too exposed to climate change for the likes of some investors,” Mould, Hewson, and Coatsworth said.

“However, Beazley has an excellent long-term record of growth in gross written premiums, and it is then down to the skill of the underwriters to make the most of that business (the company was one of the first to exclude war from its cybercrime policies, a lead which many of its rivals have since followed).”

Pre-tax profit for Beazley is expected to hit $977m for 2023, up from $191m last year when crises such as Russia and Hurricane Ian made a $350m dent. In the results, analysts are looking to see gross premiums written, the degree of rate increases on renewals, investment return, and combined ratio. The forecast for combined ratio was changed in February from low-80s to mid-70s, meaning the insurer is at a bigger profit.

“Analysts will also look to chief executive officer Adrian Cox on the trend in claims in 2023, compared to 2022’s claims ratio of 54%,” the AJ Bell team said.

“This may help them to judge whether the big improvement in 2023’s profitability is bit of a one-off, thanks to particularly favourable circumstances, or whether Beazley’s specialist expertise in cybercrime and property in particular means margins may be higher than expected over the long term, thanks to underwriting skills and also increased prices (and thus higher premiums).”