Lincoln National Third Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, November 1, 2012. Lincoln National offers a range of wealth protection, accumulation, and retirement income products and solutions through its multiple insurance and investment management businesses.

Lincoln National Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for profit of $1.01 per share, a rise of 1% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1.02. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate was unchanged. It has since dropped over the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting net income of $4.18 per share, a rise of 0.2% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: The company is looking to top estimates for the third straight quarter. Last quarter, it reported profit of $1.09 per share against a mean estimate of net income of $1, and the quarter before, the company exceeded forecasts by 2 cents with profit of $1 versus a mean estimate of net income of 98 cents.

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Stock Price Performance: Between August 2, 2012 and October 26, 2012, the stock price rose $3.34 (15.7%), from $21.34 to $24.68. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between April 20, 2012 and May 1, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 5.3% (+$1.26) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between September 14, 2012 and September 26, 2012 when shares fell for nine straight days, dropping 7.9% (-$2.03) over that span.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: Analysts predict a rise of 11% in revenue from the year-earlier quarter to $2.83 billion.

Analyst Ratings: With seven analysts rating the stock as a buy, one rating it as a sell and eight rating it as a hold, there are indications of a bullish outlook.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit fell 0.3% to $324 million ($1.10 a share) from $325 million ($1.01 a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue rose 3.4% to $2.9 billion from $2.8 billion.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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