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Here's Why You Should Stay Invested in Voya Financial (VOYA)

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Voya Financial Inc. (VOYA - Free Report) is poised for growth, given solid performance across Wealth Solutions, Investment Management and Health Solutions. Effective capital deployment, upbeat guidance and favorable growth estimates make VOYA stock worth retaining in one’s portfolio.

VOYA has a decent track record of beating earnings estimates. It beat earnings in two of the last four reported quarters, missed in two, the average surprise being 16.60%.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Voya Financial currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The stock has gained 1.4% in the past six months, against the industry’s decline of 5.3%.

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Optimistic Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VOYA’s 2023 earnings is pegged at $7.78, indicating an improvement of 18.2% on 5.9% higher revenues of $1.2 billion.

The expected long-term earnings growth Is pegged at 3.7%.

Business Tailwinds

Solid performance across Wealth Solutions, Investment Management and Health Solutions should continue to drive growth. These businesses are higher-growth, higher-return, capital-light businesses boasting a solid presence.

Voya remains focused on accelerating growth banking on ramping up commercial momentum, strengthening existing partnerships and fueling operational efficiency. VOYA boasts leadership at scale and has outpaced peers in organic growth.

This life insurer pursues strategic buyouts to reinforce its presence and ramp up its portfolio. The buyouts of Benefit Strategies, LLC in July 2021 enhanced health and wealth solutions, strengthened its skills and abilities in its Investment Management business, and expanded its presence in the fast-growing HSA market.

Health Solutions should continue to benefit from market growth in Stop Loss and Voluntary, competitive advantage and digitalization. In 2022, this health solutions provider with proven success in the mid-to-large market expects the annualized in-force premium growth toward the lower end of 7% to 10% in Health Solutions.

The Investment Management segment should continue to deliver solid results given breadth and scale across multiple asset classes and focus on three strategic growth pillars — private markets and alternatives, fixed income and ESG.

Effective Capital Deployment

Voya primarily uses excess capital to buy back shares. At the same time, the insurer stays committed to maintaining a dividend yield of at least 1% and thus raised the dividend twice in 2021.

Solid capital generation enabled record capital deployment in 2021 of $1.7 billion.

Upbeat 2024 Financial Targets

Voya Financial has unveiled its financial plan for 2024. This leading health, wealth, and investment company estimates annual adjusted operating earnings per share growth of about 12-17% through 2024. Net revenue growth of 4-6%, margin expansion of 1-2%, and prudent capital management should aid Voya Financial in attaining the target.

The company expects net annual revenue growth of 2-4% in Wealth Solutions, 7-10% in Investment Management, and 5-7% in Health Solutions segments to contribute to total net revenue growth.

VOYA aims for 10% to 15% compound annual asset growth.

Voya Financial’s prudent capital management includes the realization of 90 to 100% free cash flow conversion in the next three years and operating return on equity between 14% and 16%.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the insurance industry are United Fire Group (UFCS - Free Report) , Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF - Free Report) and Fidelity National Financial (FNF - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for UFCS’ 2022 and 2023 earnings indicates a respective year-over-year increase of 18.3% and 15%. United Fire Group delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 275.45%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CINF’s 2022 and 2023 earnings has moved 5.7% and 5.5% north, respectively, in the past 60 days. Cincinnati Financial has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 38.48%, on average.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for FNF’s 2022 earnings has moved 3.3% north in the past seven days. Fidelity National pulled off a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 31.73%, on average.

Shares of UFCS and CINF have gained 32.4% and 18.6%, respectively, year to date, while FNF stock has lost 12.7% in the same time frame.


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