Which of These Top 5 Insurance Stocks have the Strongest Earnings Trends?
February 10, 2013
Earnings trends are extremely important when evaluating stocks. At Wall St. Cheat Sheet, we view increasing earnings quarter-over-quarter as a simple way to gauge whether costs and the business model are stable. Then we like to analyze whether the company is outperforming peers in the sector. This is what we call the “E-Squared” investment analysis (‘E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter’ + ‘E = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector’).
Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. Click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now!
Here’s your Cheat Sheet to how these top 5 insurance stocks rank via earnings trends:
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU): Current Price $57.60
| Fiscal Year | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Revenue ($) in millions | 28,990 | 32,380 | 38,200 | 49,040 | 81,130 |
| Diluted EPS ($) | -2.53 | 7.63 | 5.75 | 7.22 | 0.9045 |
A nice set of results from Prudential, and excellent growth on the top line and EPS during 2011 and 2012.
Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:
| Quarter | Dec. 31, 2011 | Mar. 31, 2012 | Jun. 30, 2012 | Sep. 30, 2012 | Dec. 31, 2012 |
| Revenue ($) in millions | 11,700 | 9,623 | 16,140 | 13,140 | 46,140 |
| Diluted EPS ($) | 1.36 | -2.09 | 4.64 | -1.41 | -0.45 |
We’ll drop Prudential right away, seeing its negative EPS in the latest quarter, though revenue has made a quantum jump…
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