Prudential Earnings Preview: Strong 2009 Results Expected

Posted Feb 10th 2010 10:30AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Forecasts

Prudential Financial, Inc. (PRU), the Newark N.J.-based life insurance giant, is scheduled to release fourth-quarter financial results after the market closes Wednesday, and then to discuss those results in a conference call tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 11, at 11:00 AM (ET). An audio webcast of the call will be available at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in December, Prudential saw management changes, sold its stake in a joint venture and declared an annual dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for earnings for that period to come to $1.11 per share. That compares with $1.59 per share in the previous quarter and a loss of $2.04 per share a year ago. Revenue for the fourth quarter is expected to be 6.9% higher than a year ago to $16.2 billion.

For the full year, analysts expect to see earnings of $5.63 per share (+55.8%) on $27.8 billion (+6.7%) in revenue. Prudential's earnings were better than expected in the past three quarters, beating estimates by as much as 67 cents per share.

Prudential's long-term EPS growth forecast of 9.9% is less than that of competitor MetLife Inc. (MET), and its earnings multiple of 9.2x is less than the industry average. The First Call consensus recommendation has been to buy PRU for more than 90 days, and the mean price target is $61.13. Prudential received both a downgrade and an upgrade recently. Investopedia sees conditions improving for life insurers such as Prudential, and the stock was a Barron's roundtable pick.

Shares have traded in the $50 neighborhood since September but slipped below the 100-day moving average recently.

Tags: earnings, featured, MET, MetLife, PRU, Prudential