Legal & General Share Price Dropped 4.84% on Its FY ’23 Results

The Legal & General Group Plc (LON: LGEN) share price fell 4.84% after releasing its full-year 2023 results. The company reported a slight increase in its operating income to £1,667 million from £1,663 million in the previous year. 

The British multinational financial services and asset management company reported that its net earnings stood at £457 million, a decrease from £783 million reported last year. The company generated £1.8 billion in Solvency II capital, consistent with the previous year's performance.

The Solvency II coverage ratio was strong at 224%, with a surplus of £9.2 billion, although a slight decrease from the previous year's 236% and £9.9 billion surplus. The dividend per share increased by 5% to 20.34p from 19.37p.

The financial services company recorded a 9% increase in the potential for future earnings, totalling £14.7 billion. The company also experienced record-breaking sales in insurance sectors, with institutional annuities recording £13.7 billion in sales with £10.5 billion in retained premiums.

Legal & General’s new business value improved significantly to £1.2 billion from £0.9 billion, with a total growth of 9% in CSM, reaching £13.0 billion from £11.9 billion. The company is on the path to fulfil the five-year goals set for 2020-2024, with £6.8 billion in cumulative Solvency II capital generated, aiming for £8-9 billion by 2024.

The firm has announced dividends that reached £4.5 billion, with a target of £5.6-5.9 billion by the end of the period. It also achieved a net surplus generation of £0.8 billion over dividends. As previously stated, the firm Plans to increase the dividend by 5% for the fiscal year.

The company demonstrated resilient performance with an operating profit of £2,078 million, slightly increasing from £2,071 million the year before.

António Simões, Legal & General’s CEO, said: “Everything I have seen since joining the business in January has confirmed what attracted me to Legal & General.  We have an authentic sense of purpose and stand out for our market-leading businesses, performance track record and strong balance sheet, delivered by talented colleagues. Our 2023 performance reflects these strengths.  We are on course to achieve our five-year targets and demonstrated resilience in challenging markets to achieve record new business volumes in pension risk transfer, UK annuities and US protection, increasing our store of future profit.”

Legal & General share price. 

The Legal & General share price fell 4.84% to trade at 233.15p from Tuesday’s closing price of 245.00p.