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October 13, 2014 at 09:04 AM
For the third consecutive week, share prices of leading life insurers, the declines mirroring a slide in most major market indexes.
That’s the word for this fifth installment of a weekly analysis of the stock performance of 10 leading publicly held life insurers. The 10 companies are the same as those featured in an August 21 LifeHealthPro story listing the top 10 life insurers based on their second quarter net income.
For the week ending October 10, all of top 10 companies experienced share price declines over the five days.
For the third week in a row, Prudential Financial was the worst performer of the 10 companies, the insurer’s shares dropping by $5.29 to close on Friday at $82.15. Lincoln National’s stock dipped $3.98 to end the week at $49.06. In third place among the poorest performers: MetLife, whose shares fell by $3.73 to close at $49.73
Other stocks among the top 10 that lost value included:
Aflac: -$1.61
AIG: -$3.57
Ameriprise: -$7.74
Principal: -$2.58
RGA: -$2.26
Unum: -$1.13
Voya: -$2.54
Retreating in tandem with the top 10 were several major indices. Over the five days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell markedly — down 466.24 points — to close at 16,544.10.
The S&P 500 edged down 63.88 points. The iShares Russell 2000 index fell 5.21 points. More than reversing last week’s gain, the technology-heavy NASDAQ composite index dipped 216.15 points.
The following pages give a company-by-company breakdown of the insurers’ stock performance during the week of October 6.
Investors were not swayed by a positive report of The Conference Board“Employment Trends Index,”whichincreased in September. The index now stands at 121.68, up from 121.32 (an upward revision) in August. This represents a 6.1 percent gain in the ETI compared to a year ago.
“The Employment Trends Index increased for the ninth consecutive month, signaling solid job growth through year end,” said Conference Board Director of Macroeconomic Research Gad Levanon. “A combination of positive and negative forces has been driving the rapid decline in the unemployment rate in recent years.
