Legal & General share price retreated by over 5% on Wednesday, even after the company published strong financial results and a buyback. LGEN dropped to 245p, its lowest level since December last year, down by 13% from its highest point this year.
Legal & General raised buyback as revenue jumped
LGEN, a top British insurer and asset manager, published strong financial results today, March 11. Its business continued growing across its three businesses: institutional retirement, asset management, and retail.
Its institutional retirement made a core profit of £1.16 billion, up by 6% from a year earlier. Its asset management revenue rose slightly to £402 million, while its retail business made £447 million.
As a result, the company made a core operating profit by 6% to £1.623 billion. The core operating profit per share rose by 9% to 20.93p.
The company’s business is benefiting from the ongoing transfer of retirement assets. It is actively pricing £17 billion of these transfers this year, a substantial increase from the £10.5 billion it received last year.
These buy-ins came from companies like Ford, BP, and NatWest. The challenge is that this pension risk transfer business is seeing strong competition.
Most importantly, the company is boosting its share repurchases, a move that will reduce its outstanding shares, boosting its earnings per share over time. It had announced a £500 million share buyback last year. Its dividend yield has jumped to 8.4%.
The company has made some major activities to boost its growth over time. For example, it sold its US Protection business last year to Meiji Yasuda and disposed of assets worth £1.5 billion in its Corporate Investments unit.
Legal & General also made a partnership with Blackstone, the biggest alternative assets manager in the world. This deal aims to grow a private credit deal to over £20 billion in the next few years. The company currently has about £1.18 trillion in assets under management, higher than the analysts’ estimates of £1.16 trillion.
LGEN share price technical analysis
Legal & General stock | Source: TradingView
The daily timeframe chart shows that the LGEN stock price has suffered a big reversal in the past few weeks, dropping from a high of 279.4p in February to 245p today. This retreat accelerated after the company published strong financial results and launched a new buyback program.
The stock has dropped below the key support level at 259p, its highest point in August last year. It also dropped below the 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMA).
The stock moved to the Bottom of the Trading Range of the Murrey Math Lines tool, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has dropped below the neutral point at 50.
Therefore, the stock will likely continue falling a bit and then rebound in the coming weeks. A rebound may push it to the next key resistance level at 259p, up by 6% above the current level.
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