NYSE:HMN Horace Mann Educators Q2 2024 Earnings Report $39.92 -0.49 (-1.22%) Closing price 04/17/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$39.94 +0.02 (+0.05%) As of 04/17/2025 04:20 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Horace Mann Educators EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.20Consensus EPS $0.19Beat/MissBeat by +$0.01One Year Ago EPS$0.03Horace Mann Educators Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$388.10 millionExpected Revenue$288.67 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$99.43 millionYoY Revenue Growth+8.90%Horace Mann Educators Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2024Date8/7/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, August 8, 2024Conference Call Time9:00AM ETUpcoming EarningsHorace Mann Educators' Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 6, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Horace Mann Educators Q2 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 8, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, and welcome to the Horace Mann Second Quarter of 2024 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode for the duration of the call. Also, please be aware that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Brendan Doval, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Thank you. Welcome to Horace Mann's discussion of our Q2 results. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release, 10 Q, investor supplement and investor presentation. Copies are available on the Investors page on our website. Marina Zarraitis, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brent Conklin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will give the formal remarks on today's call. Speaker 100:01:05With us for Q and A, we have Matt Sharp, Steve Macanina, Ryan Grenier and Mark Deroscher. Before turning it over to Marita, I want to note that our presentation today includes forward looking statements as defined in Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. These forward looking statements are based on management's current expectations, and we assume no obligation to update them. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, which are described in our news release and SEC filings. Speaker 100:01:44In our prepared remarks, we use some non GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our investor supplement. I'll now turn the call over to Maria. Speaker 200:01:56Thanks, Brendan, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we reported 2nd quarter core earnings of $0.20 per diluted share, a significant improvement over prior year and in line with our pre announcement. Total revenues were up 9% with net premiums and contract deposits earned up 8%. Our property and casualty profitability restoration strategy remains on track to reach an underwriting profit in 2024 and target profitability in 2025. Our agency force is driving profitable growth in both our retail and worksite divisions. Speaker 200:02:34Property and casualty sales were up 37%, supplemental and group benefit sales were up 20%. These results underscore our confidence in achieving our objective of a double digit shareholder return on equity in 2025. As we noted in our pre announcement, in the first half of twenty twenty four, we recorded some mark to market valuation adjustments related to our commercial mortgage loan fund portfolio. The CML portfolio is roughly 9% of our total investments and is held within our life and retirement and supplemental and group benefits portfolios. Brett will give more details as well as the specific accounting requirements later in the call. Speaker 200:03:20First, I want to take a step back to provide some perspective on our year over year investment results. In the first half of twenty twenty four, total net investment income on the managed portfolio rose more than 3% over prior year, despite the returns on commercial mortgage loan funds that were meaningfully below historical averages. The core fixed maturity portfolio is performing very well in the high interest rate environment. At the end of the second quarter, our pre tax investment yield rose to 4.46% and new money rates exceeded the portfolio book yield by 163 basis points. Even with the revised outlook for commercial mortgage loan funds in 2024, we expect higher total net investment income for the full year on the strength of our core managed portfolio performance. Speaker 200:04:17While the valuation pressure in the commercial mortgage loan portfolio has impacted reported investment income, we do expect to see a tailwind in investment income as market factors impacting the commercial real estate sector begin to recover. Most importantly, these valuation marks have not impacted cash returns on this portfolio, which remains strong at about 7.5%. Today, I want to focus my remarks on the strength of our underlying business, the results we are seeing from a fully engaged and more productive agency force, and the value we are providing to our educator and employer customers. In Property and Casualty, we continue to make progress towards our objective of an underwriting profit in 2024. Our reported combined ratio of 111.5%, which reflects expected 2nd quarter seasonality improved 13 points over prior year. Speaker 200:05:17We also recorded favorable prior year development, a net $6,200,000 reserve release primarily related to lower than expected severity in auto physical damage claims from accident year 2023. The auto combined ratio for the quarter was 97.2%, which includes 6.2 points from the favorable prior year development. We continue to see physical damage trends moderating and feel confident in our ability to reach target profitability in 2025. We continue to successfully implement our auto and property rate plans and will monitor and respond to trends as necessary. We are at rate adequacy in the vast majority of our book and have line of sight to reach rate adequacy in the remainder. Speaker 200:06:08In addition, we continue to react to state level loss trends with additional rate filings as necessary. As we've noted before, Q2 historically comprises about half of our full year catastrophe load. The $41,000,000 in losses from 28 These losses were slightly lower compared to catastrophes in Q2 2023, but continue to trend above our 5 10 year historical averages in line with industry experience. We have implemented new roof rating schedules, which are effective at policy renewal in 6 of our most wind prone states. Our first look at the potential impact this quarter appeared favorable with close to $1,000,000 in estimated cost savings. Speaker 200:07:05As a reminder, we expect the full impact of this program to be about 3 points on the property loss ratio when earned in through all applicable 12 month policies. In life and retirement, we continue to see educators respond positively to our value proposition and our core product offerings. This segment remains a cornerstone of our value proposition for educators to protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. We are able to partner with employers to bring financial wellness and retirement planning resources to educators, including 403 plans and our retirement advantage mutual fund platform. 403 plans are how many educators are introduced to Horace Mann and enable us to cross sell complementary products to new customers. Speaker 200:07:57These core 403 product deposits have increased 6% year to date and have a healthy sales pipeline. Against this backdrop, we're realizing improvements in the number and quality of leads our internal teams are providing to agents. We upgraded our website, improved our online quoting functionality and tested a number of digital marketing programs. We're now working to scale up the most successful approaches in the back half of the year and into 2025. Taken altogether, the result is strong retail sales growth from an engaged agency plan. Speaker 200:08:35Auto sales were up 29% in the 2nd quarter, life sales were up 27 percent. Our close ratios remain consistent with historic levels. The growth is coming from more agencies writing more policies and writing higher premium policies. In the first half of twenty twenty four, average agency income increased 14% over prior year. Our retail distribution recruiting is strong and slightly ahead of our plans. Speaker 200:09:01We are seeing more new agents reach key milestones faster, which speaks to the quality and productivity level of our agency force. Similar to retail, our work site division has realized productivity increases in the agency force. Work site direct sales are up 14%. Notably, recent sales results have even surpassed NTA's pre pandemic levels. Customers and agents are responding well to recent product enhancements to our offerings and we continue to update our product set to meet customer needs. Speaker 200:09:37Benefits utilization continues to remain below pre pandemic levels, but is trending towards our long term target of 43% on a sequential basis. In the employer sponsored business, our number of covered lives is 830,000, a 2% increase over prior year. As we've noted before, this business has a longer sales cycle up to 18 months and sales quarter to quarter can be lumpy. We continue to leverage our existing broker partnerships to expand distribution and are focused on adding more partners. Before I turn the call over to Brett, I want to reiterate how well positioned Horace Mann is to reach our goals of an expanded share of the education market and a sustainable double digit ROE in 2025 and beyond. Speaker 200:10:28Our diversified business model provides strong steady earnings. With the broader P and C earnings pressure facing the industry over the past few years, we've been able to consistently report income on a consolidated basis. And while life and retirement earnings have been lower in the first half of 24 due to lower net investment income, we anticipate eventual recovery of most of the CML mark to market valuation adjustments. To put it more simply, we have a clear line of sight to target profitability in all segments in 2025 and we are growing profitably across the business. This is the basis of our current view of company value. Speaker 200:11:12One of the levers to create further shareholder value is to buy back shares when we believe market conditions are favorable and we believe that has been the case recently. So far in 2024, we've bought back 230,987 shares at a total cost of $7,700,000 In addition, I want to touch on some of the activities we've been doing in schools to bookend the summer. Before the school year ended, we completed an entire month of teacher appreciation activities, including exclusive virtual events with celebrities and entertainers who thanked teachers directly, our website traffic doubled over the beginning of the year and we were able to follow-up with thousands of educators who wanted to hear more about Horace Mann. As our educators head back to school this month, our agents will be there right alongside them. Our aim for the Q3 is to help educators be set for success, both professionally and personally. Speaker 200:12:16We are confident in our ability to increase our share of the education market precisely because we're here for educators and we know how Speaker 300:12:25to help them succeed better than anyone else. Thanks. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Brett. Thanks, Marita. 2nd quarter core earnings were 8,400,000 dollars or $0.20 per diluted share, a significant increase from $0.03 a year ago. Speaker 300:12:42Our P and C profitability restoration strategy remains on track to return an underwriting profit in 2024 and reach target profitability in 2025. We're also seeing strong growth momentum across the segments. As we noted in our pre announcement, we now expect a full year core EPS of $2.40 to $2.70 primarily due to lower than anticipated income on our commercial mortgage loan funds as well as first half catastrophes that were above our 5 year exposure weighted average. Today, I'll start my remarks with more detail on investments and then speak to the performance of each of the 3 segments. Within our $7,000,000,000 investment portfolio, over 80% of our assets are invested in our fixed income portfolios, which have a weighted average credit rating of A plus These portfolios have clearly benefited from the higher interest rate environment and are performing above our expectations. Speaker 300:13:50At the end of the second quarter, our core new money yield was 5.88 percent, well above the core pre tax yield of 4.25%. The portfolio is concentrated in investment grade corporates, municipals and high quality agency and agency MBS securities. We have $627,000,000 or about 9% of our portfolio in commercial mortgage loan funds. We hold these assets in fund structures across a diverse group of managers to provide access to broader markets, geographies, property types, borrowers and loan types versus the direct loan origination strategy used by many of our life industry peers. We therefore follow the equity method of accounting for these funds. Speaker 300:14:44Essentially, we're booking quarterly adjustments based on current real estate property valuations that have a 1 quarter lag and can be impacted by market factors like interest rates in the level of real estate transaction. Most of the underlying loans within these funds have maturities of 5 years or less. If loans that have been mark to market mature and potentially pay off or refinance at par, we would expect to see a tailwind in investment income. Most importantly, as Marita mentioned, these valuation marks have not impacted cash returns on this portfolio, which remains strong at about 7.5%. The majority of our total commercial real estate exposure is in multifamily and industrial, both of which are generally performing well. Speaker 300:15:39We continue to monitor office exposure closely, which represents less than 3% of the total investment portfolio. These investments are concentrated in senior commercial mortgage loan funds. It is primarily well amenitized, well located and generally newer construction Class A exposure. What this means for 2024 is overall net investment income that is slightly higher than 2023 compared to the high single digit increase we assumed in our original guidance. As I previously mentioned, valuations are based on market factors and we see the potential for an investments tailwind in the future. Speaker 300:16:24The commercial mortgage loan funds report on a 1 quarter lag, so we have some early insight into Q3 returns. Right now, we expect $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 of net investment income from CMLs in the second half of twenty twenty four, a notable increase from the $4,000,000 of net investment income in the first half of the year. This is due to a lower level of negative valuation adjustments across the funds. As a result, we expect CML income to remain below historical averages on a full year basis. We expect further improvement in 2025. Speaker 300:17:04Turning to the business segment performance, property and casualty net written premiums rose nearly 17% to $199,000,000 primarily on premium increases implemented over the past 18 months. The reported combined ratio of 111.5 improved 13 points over prior year, including 3.5 points of favorable prior year reserve development. The $6,200,000 reserve release is primarily related to auto physical damage claims from accident year 2023. Catastrophe losses of $41,000,000 added almost 23 points to the reported combined ratio compared to over 26 points a year ago. We have mentioned before that 2nd quarter typically accounts for about half of our full year cat load. Speaker 300:17:572nd quarter losses were above our 5 year and 10 year historic averages. This is consistent with the broader industry, which experienced record levels of severe convective storm activity. In auto, net written premiums of 122,000,000 increased 15% over prior year primarily on rate actions. The combined ratio of 97.2 improved 17 points over prior year. In terms of loss cost trends, we saw favorable severity trends in the quarter. Speaker 300:18:31Frequency was unfavorable on a quarterly basis, but flat year to date. Policyholder retention remained strong at 86.6% despite substantial rate increases. In property, net written premiums were 77,000,000 a 20% increase over prior year. The combined ratio reflected cat losses that were below prior year, but elevated compared to our historical averages. Despite higher premiums, our policyholder retention remained strong at 90%. Speaker 300:19:07Looking ahead to the full year, we slightly narrowed our P and C earnings guidance range to $36,000,000 to $39,000,000 to adjust for first half results primarily on higher cat costs. We continue to expect to reach a segment underwriting profit in 2024. Turning to life and retirement, core earnings of $12,000,000 were below prior year by 29% due to lower than anticipated income on our commercial mortgage loan funds and higher interest credited. In the retirement business, deposits in our core 403 products have increased 6% year to date and accounts on our fee based mutual fund platform Retirement Advantage surpassed $20,000 As Marita mentioned, our retirement products are a cornerstone of Horace Mann's value proposition, an important entry point to the education market. Annualized life sales increased 27% over prior year. Speaker 300:20:09Mortality costs for the quarter were comparable to the prior year and persistency remained strong at about 96%. For the full year outlook, we have adjusted life and retirement segment earnings down to a range of $50,000,000 to $56,000,000 due to lower expected net investment income related to the commercial mortgage loan funds. Turning to worksite, in the supplemental and group benefits segment, earnings of $14,000,000 were above prior year by 19% on higher net investment income and lower policyholder benefits utilization. Premiums and contract charges earned were $64,000,000 down slightly from prior year. The blended benefits ratio of 39% was below prior year, but trending toward our target of 43% on a sequential basis. Speaker 300:21:03Sales were up 20% mostly on the strength of the worksite direct line. Our employer sponsored sales were up as well, but like the broader group benefits industry, our 2nd quarter generally has light sales volume. For the full year, we have adjusted our supplemental and group benefits segment up to an earnings range of 49 to $52,000,000 which is mostly due to lower benefits utilization in the first half of the year. While we continue to expect utilization will return to pre pandemic levels, the pace is slower than we originally anticipated. As we move into the back half of the year, we continue to prioritize long term shareholder value creation. Speaker 300:21:49At our targeted profitability across the segments, Horace Mann is capable of generating about $50,000,000 in excess capital above what we pay in shareholder dividends in interest expense annually. Our first priority remains on funding profitable growth. 2nd, we are committed to increasing the annual shareholder dividend as we have for the past 16 years. 3rd, we opportunistically buy back shares when market conditions are favorable. Year to date through August 2nd, we have repurchased approximately 231,000 shares at a cost of $7,700,000 We have about $28,000,000 remaining on our current share repurchase authorization. Speaker 300:22:35In closing, Horace Mann has a clear line of sight to target profitability across our segments, a strong balance sheet and solid growth momentum. With these pieces in place, we are well positioned to expand our market share and achieve a 10% shareholder return on equity in 2025. Thank you. Operator, we're ready for questions. Operator00:23:02We will now begin the question and answer And our first question will come from Meyer Shields with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:23:35Great. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to ask a question based on Brett's comments, because when we look at, I guess, the rate of earned rate increase or the pace of earned rate increase and what seems to be decelerating severity trends. I guess I would have expected the underlying accident year loss ratio in auto to improve by a little bit more than it had. I was hoping you could talk through, I think it's the frequency issue that probably opposed that. Speaker 400:24:06I was hoping you could add a little detail to what's going on there. Speaker 500:24:10Sure, Meyer. This is Mark. I'll take that question. When we look at auto frequency, the accident frequency in the quarter was a bit elevated, compared to 2023. I think it's primarily attributable to the fact that spring break across much of the country was a little bit later this year. Speaker 500:24:30So some of what would normally come as accident frequency in the Q1 leaked into the Q2. I think that's a little bit exacerbated by the fact that we have our educator niche. But if you look at the first half of the year in aggregate, accident frequency is pretty much flat year over year. And if we look at severity, the metal coverages are definitely coming down. I think on the bodily injury and side, we continue to see trends in the kind of mid to high single digits, somewhat a function of continued social inflation. Speaker 500:25:11But in the aggregate, auto loss costs for the first half of the year, about 5% over where they were in 2023, which is pretty much dead on to what we expected. Speaker 400:25:26Okay. That's very helpful. I guess a follow-up question on that. Is the file I guess the delta between filed rate increases on the liability side and on the metal side of the physical damage side, is that changing as we see the physical damage trends abate? Speaker 500:25:46I think it likely will, Meyer. But right now, I mean, most of our rate has been primarily across the board, across all coverages. There are some differences, but not material differences as of yet. But I think as we get into next year and we feel strong about our profitability trajectory and you get to more kind of inflationary type rate changes, you'll see it match up, I think, much more closely with the underlying coverage inflation. Speaker 200:26:14Certainly, as this year's data gets worked into the pipes, yes. Speaker 300:26:27Go ahead, Maher. Speaker 400:26:31A timeline of the mark to market accreting back to par, I guess maybe the right way to ask is the duration of the real estate portfolio. Speaker 600:26:43Sure, Meyer. This is Ryan. I think you're asking about the timeline of when we think we're going to see some of that recovery in the unrealized. We put a little more detail in the investor presentation on the commercial mortgage loan portfolio this quarter. It's on Slides 3637. Speaker 600:27:02And you can see that about 2 thirds of our CML portfolio will mature over the next 18 months. So as a reminder, with equity method of accounting, we've taken a valuation adjustment real time, 1 quarter lag to every single loan in that limited mortgage loan fund portfolio. That's 249 of them. And clearly, many of them, the vast majority continue to perform well. And you can see that in the cash yield statistics that we put out on that slide for you. Speaker 600:27:34There's a significant delta between the cash yield and the net investment income, and net investment income reflects those unrealized adjustments. So with 2 thirds of them maturing over the next 18 months, we feel good that there's a tailwind there that will play in. Our estimate for second half is conservative. And so I think you're going to see more of that in 2025 or later, but we feel confident about the trajectory. Speaker 400:28:05Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much. And I apologize for my phone. Speaker 600:28:08No problem. Thank you. Operator00:28:13And our next question will come from Wilma Burtis with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:28:19Hey, good morning. Could you just talk about the can you guys hear me? Speaker 400:28:24Yes. Speaker 700:28:25Could you just talk about the trajectory of the interest rates that are factored into the current CML portfolio valuation? And maybe just talk about the expectation for rate cuts that's baked into that assumption? Thanks. Speaker 600:28:39Sure, Wilma. This is Ryan. Thanks again for the question. Our commercial mortgage loan portfolio is primarily floating rate exposure over 80% of the loans, close to 85% are floating rate. And that has certainly helped cash yields. Speaker 600:28:55But the inverse of that is it puts pressure on the valuation on cap rates of the underlying portfolio, the underlying loans, the properties supporting the loans. As we move into what will likely be a moderating interest rate environment, that will be a tailwind for the commercial real estate market. It will provide some relief on the debt service coverage numbers as well as help support cap rates for the underlying properties. So we're not necessarily counting on that. We have a lot of confidence in the underlying fundamentals of the properties. Speaker 600:29:33And as I just said to Mayor, we expect a lot of this unrealized marks to come back as they mature, which is over the next 2 thirds of the portfolio matures over the next 18 months. Speaker 700:29:46Okay. Thank you. And then could you talk about what drove the favorable prior year developments? And is that something that we could see continuing into the second half of the year? Thanks. Speaker 300:29:58Sure, Wilma. This is Brett. And as usual, let me just start out by as it relates to the P and C reserves. I think most know that we take a very conservative stance as it relates to our P and C reserving withholding our reserves at the upper half of the actuarial range. I would also add that we remain very comfortable with our aggregate reserve levels. Speaker 300:30:24To your point, on the PYD that we recorded in the Q2, obviously, we were encouraged by the emerging favorable trends that we're beginning to see, and I think it was in my prepared remarks in the auto claims development pattern, specifically in the auto physical damage coverage. So with that, let me turn it over to Mark who can kind of talk about the more specifically about the trends that we're seeing. Speaker 500:30:50Yes, absolutely. I mean all that development essentially came out of essentially collision and auto property damage, which are short tailed lines. And as those claims are closing, what we're finding is the severity on them has dropped precipitously from where we thought it was at the time when reserves were set. So at that time, we were still dealing with the tail end of mid to high single digit severity trends. And now, as they're settling out, we're seeing trends that are more in the very low single digits and that's really what's driving that prior year development. Speaker 500:31:31So, we have a very high level of confidence that we're right on these numbers. Speaker 300:31:37Yes. And I can't sit here and guarantee what's going to happen in the second half of this year, but I would just say this, if the trends continue to be favorable as Mark just described, it would not surprise me if we would have development. But to say that we will or we won't, I can't do that. But we feel very good about where we're at currently and the trends that we're seeing. Speaker 700:32:01Thank you. And if I could sneak one more in, could you just talk a little bit about share repurchases? They were a bit higher in the quarter. CAS came in line, but just maybe talk about that and what we could see in the second half of the year and maybe even 25 as P and C operations normalized? Thanks. Speaker 200:32:18Yes. Thank you. I'll let Ryan go through the details. But as we always say, share repurchase is just one piece of a very thoughtful capital management strategy. Ryan, you want to take it? Speaker 600:32:29Sure. Thanks for the question, Wilma. As we have a clear line of sight to returning to target profitability in 2025, that translates into about $50,000,000 of excess capital production and that's on top of the interest expense and a pretty compelling dividend. Our capital management priorities are number 1, to fund profitable growth. Number 2, to support that dividend. Speaker 600:32:54We've got a bit over 4% right now of the dividend yield, and we've increased that annually over the past 16 years. Our approach to buybacks has historically been opportunistic and will continue to be. Like I said, we have a clear line of sight to target And through yesterday, on a year to date basis, we bought back $7,700,000 at an average price of $33.30 So, pretty opportunistic approach to what we feel is an undervalued stock price. Speaker 700:33:32Okay. Thank you. Operator00:33:55And with no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Brendan DeWalle for any closing remarks. Speaker 100:34:03We'd like to thank you for joining our call today. Please reach out if there are any additional questions and have a great day. Speaker 600:34:11Thank you. Operator00:34:15The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallHorace Mann Educators Q2 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Horace Mann Educators Earnings HeadlinesHorace Mann to announce first-quarter 2025 financial results on May 6April 14, 2025 | gurufocus.comMoody’s affirms Horace Mann ratings, shifts outlook to stableMarch 27, 2025 | investing.comThe Trump Dump is starting; Get out of stocks now?The first 365 days of the Trump presidency… Will be the best time to get rich in American history.April 18, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) Has Announced That It Will Be Increasing Its Dividend To $0.35March 16, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comHorace Mann Educators Corp (HMN) Announces Dividend Increase and Positive Earnings OutlookMarch 3, 2025 | gurufocus.comHorace Mann boosts dividend 3% to 35c per share, backs FY25 EPS view $3.60-$3.90March 3, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comSee More Horace Mann Educators Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Horace Mann Educators? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Horace Mann Educators and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Horace Mann EducatorsHorace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN), together with its subsidiaries, operates as an insurance holding company in the United States. The company operates through Property & Casualty, Life & Retirement, and Supplemental & Group Benefits segments. Its Property & Casualty segment offers insurance products, including private passenger auto insurance, residential home insurance, and personal umbrella insurance; and provides auto coverages including liability and collision, and property coverage for homeowners and renters. The Life & Retirement segment markets tax-qualified fixed, fixed indexed, and variable annuities; and internal revenue code for educator, which allows public school employees and employees of other tax-exempt organizations, such as not-for-profit private schools, to utilize pretax income to make periodic contributions to a qualified retirement plan. The Supplemental & Group Benefits segment offers employer-sponsored products including accident, critical illness, limited-benefit fixed indemnity insurance, term life, and short-term and long-term disability, as well as worksite direct products, such as supplemental heart, cancer, disability, and accident coverage. The company was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Springfield, Illinois.View Horace Mann Educators ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Archer Aviation Unveils NYC Network Ahead of Key Earnings Report3 Reasons to Like the Look of Amazon Ahead of EarningsTesla Stock Eyes Breakout With Earnings on DeckJohnson & Johnson Earnings Were More Good Than Bad—Time to Buy? 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good morning, and welcome to the Horace Mann Second Quarter of 2024 Results Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode for the duration of the call. Also, please be aware that today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Brendan Doval, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:38Thank you. Welcome to Horace Mann's discussion of our Q2 results. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release, 10 Q, investor supplement and investor presentation. Copies are available on the Investors page on our website. Marina Zarraitis, President and Chief Executive Officer and Brent Conklin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will give the formal remarks on today's call. Speaker 100:01:05With us for Q and A, we have Matt Sharp, Steve Macanina, Ryan Grenier and Mark Deroscher. Before turning it over to Marita, I want to note that our presentation today includes forward looking statements as defined in Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. These forward looking statements are based on management's current expectations, and we assume no obligation to update them. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, which are described in our news release and SEC filings. Speaker 100:01:44In our prepared remarks, we use some non GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our investor supplement. I'll now turn the call over to Maria. Speaker 200:01:56Thanks, Brendan, and good morning, everyone. Yesterday, we reported 2nd quarter core earnings of $0.20 per diluted share, a significant improvement over prior year and in line with our pre announcement. Total revenues were up 9% with net premiums and contract deposits earned up 8%. Our property and casualty profitability restoration strategy remains on track to reach an underwriting profit in 2024 and target profitability in 2025. Our agency force is driving profitable growth in both our retail and worksite divisions. Speaker 200:02:34Property and casualty sales were up 37%, supplemental and group benefit sales were up 20%. These results underscore our confidence in achieving our objective of a double digit shareholder return on equity in 2025. As we noted in our pre announcement, in the first half of twenty twenty four, we recorded some mark to market valuation adjustments related to our commercial mortgage loan fund portfolio. The CML portfolio is roughly 9% of our total investments and is held within our life and retirement and supplemental and group benefits portfolios. Brett will give more details as well as the specific accounting requirements later in the call. Speaker 200:03:20First, I want to take a step back to provide some perspective on our year over year investment results. In the first half of twenty twenty four, total net investment income on the managed portfolio rose more than 3% over prior year, despite the returns on commercial mortgage loan funds that were meaningfully below historical averages. The core fixed maturity portfolio is performing very well in the high interest rate environment. At the end of the second quarter, our pre tax investment yield rose to 4.46% and new money rates exceeded the portfolio book yield by 163 basis points. Even with the revised outlook for commercial mortgage loan funds in 2024, we expect higher total net investment income for the full year on the strength of our core managed portfolio performance. Speaker 200:04:17While the valuation pressure in the commercial mortgage loan portfolio has impacted reported investment income, we do expect to see a tailwind in investment income as market factors impacting the commercial real estate sector begin to recover. Most importantly, these valuation marks have not impacted cash returns on this portfolio, which remains strong at about 7.5%. Today, I want to focus my remarks on the strength of our underlying business, the results we are seeing from a fully engaged and more productive agency force, and the value we are providing to our educator and employer customers. In Property and Casualty, we continue to make progress towards our objective of an underwriting profit in 2024. Our reported combined ratio of 111.5%, which reflects expected 2nd quarter seasonality improved 13 points over prior year. Speaker 200:05:17We also recorded favorable prior year development, a net $6,200,000 reserve release primarily related to lower than expected severity in auto physical damage claims from accident year 2023. The auto combined ratio for the quarter was 97.2%, which includes 6.2 points from the favorable prior year development. We continue to see physical damage trends moderating and feel confident in our ability to reach target profitability in 2025. We continue to successfully implement our auto and property rate plans and will monitor and respond to trends as necessary. We are at rate adequacy in the vast majority of our book and have line of sight to reach rate adequacy in the remainder. Speaker 200:06:08In addition, we continue to react to state level loss trends with additional rate filings as necessary. As we've noted before, Q2 historically comprises about half of our full year catastrophe load. The $41,000,000 in losses from 28 These losses were slightly lower compared to catastrophes in Q2 2023, but continue to trend above our 5 10 year historical averages in line with industry experience. We have implemented new roof rating schedules, which are effective at policy renewal in 6 of our most wind prone states. Our first look at the potential impact this quarter appeared favorable with close to $1,000,000 in estimated cost savings. Speaker 200:07:05As a reminder, we expect the full impact of this program to be about 3 points on the property loss ratio when earned in through all applicable 12 month policies. In life and retirement, we continue to see educators respond positively to our value proposition and our core product offerings. This segment remains a cornerstone of our value proposition for educators to protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. We are able to partner with employers to bring financial wellness and retirement planning resources to educators, including 403 plans and our retirement advantage mutual fund platform. 403 plans are how many educators are introduced to Horace Mann and enable us to cross sell complementary products to new customers. Speaker 200:07:57These core 403 product deposits have increased 6% year to date and have a healthy sales pipeline. Against this backdrop, we're realizing improvements in the number and quality of leads our internal teams are providing to agents. We upgraded our website, improved our online quoting functionality and tested a number of digital marketing programs. We're now working to scale up the most successful approaches in the back half of the year and into 2025. Taken altogether, the result is strong retail sales growth from an engaged agency plan. Speaker 200:08:35Auto sales were up 29% in the 2nd quarter, life sales were up 27 percent. Our close ratios remain consistent with historic levels. The growth is coming from more agencies writing more policies and writing higher premium policies. In the first half of twenty twenty four, average agency income increased 14% over prior year. Our retail distribution recruiting is strong and slightly ahead of our plans. Speaker 200:09:01We are seeing more new agents reach key milestones faster, which speaks to the quality and productivity level of our agency force. Similar to retail, our work site division has realized productivity increases in the agency force. Work site direct sales are up 14%. Notably, recent sales results have even surpassed NTA's pre pandemic levels. Customers and agents are responding well to recent product enhancements to our offerings and we continue to update our product set to meet customer needs. Speaker 200:09:37Benefits utilization continues to remain below pre pandemic levels, but is trending towards our long term target of 43% on a sequential basis. In the employer sponsored business, our number of covered lives is 830,000, a 2% increase over prior year. As we've noted before, this business has a longer sales cycle up to 18 months and sales quarter to quarter can be lumpy. We continue to leverage our existing broker partnerships to expand distribution and are focused on adding more partners. Before I turn the call over to Brett, I want to reiterate how well positioned Horace Mann is to reach our goals of an expanded share of the education market and a sustainable double digit ROE in 2025 and beyond. Speaker 200:10:28Our diversified business model provides strong steady earnings. With the broader P and C earnings pressure facing the industry over the past few years, we've been able to consistently report income on a consolidated basis. And while life and retirement earnings have been lower in the first half of 24 due to lower net investment income, we anticipate eventual recovery of most of the CML mark to market valuation adjustments. To put it more simply, we have a clear line of sight to target profitability in all segments in 2025 and we are growing profitably across the business. This is the basis of our current view of company value. Speaker 200:11:12One of the levers to create further shareholder value is to buy back shares when we believe market conditions are favorable and we believe that has been the case recently. So far in 2024, we've bought back 230,987 shares at a total cost of $7,700,000 In addition, I want to touch on some of the activities we've been doing in schools to bookend the summer. Before the school year ended, we completed an entire month of teacher appreciation activities, including exclusive virtual events with celebrities and entertainers who thanked teachers directly, our website traffic doubled over the beginning of the year and we were able to follow-up with thousands of educators who wanted to hear more about Horace Mann. As our educators head back to school this month, our agents will be there right alongside them. Our aim for the Q3 is to help educators be set for success, both professionally and personally. Speaker 200:12:16We are confident in our ability to increase our share of the education market precisely because we're here for educators and we know how Speaker 300:12:25to help them succeed better than anyone else. Thanks. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Brett. Thanks, Marita. 2nd quarter core earnings were 8,400,000 dollars or $0.20 per diluted share, a significant increase from $0.03 a year ago. Speaker 300:12:42Our P and C profitability restoration strategy remains on track to return an underwriting profit in 2024 and reach target profitability in 2025. We're also seeing strong growth momentum across the segments. As we noted in our pre announcement, we now expect a full year core EPS of $2.40 to $2.70 primarily due to lower than anticipated income on our commercial mortgage loan funds as well as first half catastrophes that were above our 5 year exposure weighted average. Today, I'll start my remarks with more detail on investments and then speak to the performance of each of the 3 segments. Within our $7,000,000,000 investment portfolio, over 80% of our assets are invested in our fixed income portfolios, which have a weighted average credit rating of A plus These portfolios have clearly benefited from the higher interest rate environment and are performing above our expectations. Speaker 300:13:50At the end of the second quarter, our core new money yield was 5.88 percent, well above the core pre tax yield of 4.25%. The portfolio is concentrated in investment grade corporates, municipals and high quality agency and agency MBS securities. We have $627,000,000 or about 9% of our portfolio in commercial mortgage loan funds. We hold these assets in fund structures across a diverse group of managers to provide access to broader markets, geographies, property types, borrowers and loan types versus the direct loan origination strategy used by many of our life industry peers. We therefore follow the equity method of accounting for these funds. Speaker 300:14:44Essentially, we're booking quarterly adjustments based on current real estate property valuations that have a 1 quarter lag and can be impacted by market factors like interest rates in the level of real estate transaction. Most of the underlying loans within these funds have maturities of 5 years or less. If loans that have been mark to market mature and potentially pay off or refinance at par, we would expect to see a tailwind in investment income. Most importantly, as Marita mentioned, these valuation marks have not impacted cash returns on this portfolio, which remains strong at about 7.5%. The majority of our total commercial real estate exposure is in multifamily and industrial, both of which are generally performing well. Speaker 300:15:39We continue to monitor office exposure closely, which represents less than 3% of the total investment portfolio. These investments are concentrated in senior commercial mortgage loan funds. It is primarily well amenitized, well located and generally newer construction Class A exposure. What this means for 2024 is overall net investment income that is slightly higher than 2023 compared to the high single digit increase we assumed in our original guidance. As I previously mentioned, valuations are based on market factors and we see the potential for an investments tailwind in the future. Speaker 300:16:24The commercial mortgage loan funds report on a 1 quarter lag, so we have some early insight into Q3 returns. Right now, we expect $10,000,000 to $12,000,000 of net investment income from CMLs in the second half of twenty twenty four, a notable increase from the $4,000,000 of net investment income in the first half of the year. This is due to a lower level of negative valuation adjustments across the funds. As a result, we expect CML income to remain below historical averages on a full year basis. We expect further improvement in 2025. Speaker 300:17:04Turning to the business segment performance, property and casualty net written premiums rose nearly 17% to $199,000,000 primarily on premium increases implemented over the past 18 months. The reported combined ratio of 111.5 improved 13 points over prior year, including 3.5 points of favorable prior year reserve development. The $6,200,000 reserve release is primarily related to auto physical damage claims from accident year 2023. Catastrophe losses of $41,000,000 added almost 23 points to the reported combined ratio compared to over 26 points a year ago. We have mentioned before that 2nd quarter typically accounts for about half of our full year cat load. Speaker 300:17:572nd quarter losses were above our 5 year and 10 year historic averages. This is consistent with the broader industry, which experienced record levels of severe convective storm activity. In auto, net written premiums of 122,000,000 increased 15% over prior year primarily on rate actions. The combined ratio of 97.2 improved 17 points over prior year. In terms of loss cost trends, we saw favorable severity trends in the quarter. Speaker 300:18:31Frequency was unfavorable on a quarterly basis, but flat year to date. Policyholder retention remained strong at 86.6% despite substantial rate increases. In property, net written premiums were 77,000,000 a 20% increase over prior year. The combined ratio reflected cat losses that were below prior year, but elevated compared to our historical averages. Despite higher premiums, our policyholder retention remained strong at 90%. Speaker 300:19:07Looking ahead to the full year, we slightly narrowed our P and C earnings guidance range to $36,000,000 to $39,000,000 to adjust for first half results primarily on higher cat costs. We continue to expect to reach a segment underwriting profit in 2024. Turning to life and retirement, core earnings of $12,000,000 were below prior year by 29% due to lower than anticipated income on our commercial mortgage loan funds and higher interest credited. In the retirement business, deposits in our core 403 products have increased 6% year to date and accounts on our fee based mutual fund platform Retirement Advantage surpassed $20,000 As Marita mentioned, our retirement products are a cornerstone of Horace Mann's value proposition, an important entry point to the education market. Annualized life sales increased 27% over prior year. Speaker 300:20:09Mortality costs for the quarter were comparable to the prior year and persistency remained strong at about 96%. For the full year outlook, we have adjusted life and retirement segment earnings down to a range of $50,000,000 to $56,000,000 due to lower expected net investment income related to the commercial mortgage loan funds. Turning to worksite, in the supplemental and group benefits segment, earnings of $14,000,000 were above prior year by 19% on higher net investment income and lower policyholder benefits utilization. Premiums and contract charges earned were $64,000,000 down slightly from prior year. The blended benefits ratio of 39% was below prior year, but trending toward our target of 43% on a sequential basis. Speaker 300:21:03Sales were up 20% mostly on the strength of the worksite direct line. Our employer sponsored sales were up as well, but like the broader group benefits industry, our 2nd quarter generally has light sales volume. For the full year, we have adjusted our supplemental and group benefits segment up to an earnings range of 49 to $52,000,000 which is mostly due to lower benefits utilization in the first half of the year. While we continue to expect utilization will return to pre pandemic levels, the pace is slower than we originally anticipated. As we move into the back half of the year, we continue to prioritize long term shareholder value creation. Speaker 300:21:49At our targeted profitability across the segments, Horace Mann is capable of generating about $50,000,000 in excess capital above what we pay in shareholder dividends in interest expense annually. Our first priority remains on funding profitable growth. 2nd, we are committed to increasing the annual shareholder dividend as we have for the past 16 years. 3rd, we opportunistically buy back shares when market conditions are favorable. Year to date through August 2nd, we have repurchased approximately 231,000 shares at a cost of $7,700,000 We have about $28,000,000 remaining on our current share repurchase authorization. Speaker 300:22:35In closing, Horace Mann has a clear line of sight to target profitability across our segments, a strong balance sheet and solid growth momentum. With these pieces in place, we are well positioned to expand our market share and achieve a 10% shareholder return on equity in 2025. Thank you. Operator, we're ready for questions. Operator00:23:02We will now begin the question and answer And our first question will come from Meyer Shields with KBW. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:23:35Great. Good morning, everyone. I wanted to ask a question based on Brett's comments, because when we look at, I guess, the rate of earned rate increase or the pace of earned rate increase and what seems to be decelerating severity trends. I guess I would have expected the underlying accident year loss ratio in auto to improve by a little bit more than it had. I was hoping you could talk through, I think it's the frequency issue that probably opposed that. Speaker 400:24:06I was hoping you could add a little detail to what's going on there. Speaker 500:24:10Sure, Meyer. This is Mark. I'll take that question. When we look at auto frequency, the accident frequency in the quarter was a bit elevated, compared to 2023. I think it's primarily attributable to the fact that spring break across much of the country was a little bit later this year. Speaker 500:24:30So some of what would normally come as accident frequency in the Q1 leaked into the Q2. I think that's a little bit exacerbated by the fact that we have our educator niche. But if you look at the first half of the year in aggregate, accident frequency is pretty much flat year over year. And if we look at severity, the metal coverages are definitely coming down. I think on the bodily injury and side, we continue to see trends in the kind of mid to high single digits, somewhat a function of continued social inflation. Speaker 500:25:11But in the aggregate, auto loss costs for the first half of the year, about 5% over where they were in 2023, which is pretty much dead on to what we expected. Speaker 400:25:26Okay. That's very helpful. I guess a follow-up question on that. Is the file I guess the delta between filed rate increases on the liability side and on the metal side of the physical damage side, is that changing as we see the physical damage trends abate? Speaker 500:25:46I think it likely will, Meyer. But right now, I mean, most of our rate has been primarily across the board, across all coverages. There are some differences, but not material differences as of yet. But I think as we get into next year and we feel strong about our profitability trajectory and you get to more kind of inflationary type rate changes, you'll see it match up, I think, much more closely with the underlying coverage inflation. Speaker 200:26:14Certainly, as this year's data gets worked into the pipes, yes. Speaker 300:26:27Go ahead, Maher. Speaker 400:26:31A timeline of the mark to market accreting back to par, I guess maybe the right way to ask is the duration of the real estate portfolio. Speaker 600:26:43Sure, Meyer. This is Ryan. I think you're asking about the timeline of when we think we're going to see some of that recovery in the unrealized. We put a little more detail in the investor presentation on the commercial mortgage loan portfolio this quarter. It's on Slides 3637. Speaker 600:27:02And you can see that about 2 thirds of our CML portfolio will mature over the next 18 months. So as a reminder, with equity method of accounting, we've taken a valuation adjustment real time, 1 quarter lag to every single loan in that limited mortgage loan fund portfolio. That's 249 of them. And clearly, many of them, the vast majority continue to perform well. And you can see that in the cash yield statistics that we put out on that slide for you. Speaker 600:27:34There's a significant delta between the cash yield and the net investment income, and net investment income reflects those unrealized adjustments. So with 2 thirds of them maturing over the next 18 months, we feel good that there's a tailwind there that will play in. Our estimate for second half is conservative. And so I think you're going to see more of that in 2025 or later, but we feel confident about the trajectory. Speaker 400:28:05Okay, fantastic. Thank you so much. And I apologize for my phone. Speaker 600:28:08No problem. Thank you. Operator00:28:13And our next question will come from Wilma Burtis with Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:28:19Hey, good morning. Could you just talk about the can you guys hear me? Speaker 400:28:24Yes. Speaker 700:28:25Could you just talk about the trajectory of the interest rates that are factored into the current CML portfolio valuation? And maybe just talk about the expectation for rate cuts that's baked into that assumption? Thanks. Speaker 600:28:39Sure, Wilma. This is Ryan. Thanks again for the question. Our commercial mortgage loan portfolio is primarily floating rate exposure over 80% of the loans, close to 85% are floating rate. And that has certainly helped cash yields. Speaker 600:28:55But the inverse of that is it puts pressure on the valuation on cap rates of the underlying portfolio, the underlying loans, the properties supporting the loans. As we move into what will likely be a moderating interest rate environment, that will be a tailwind for the commercial real estate market. It will provide some relief on the debt service coverage numbers as well as help support cap rates for the underlying properties. So we're not necessarily counting on that. We have a lot of confidence in the underlying fundamentals of the properties. Speaker 600:29:33And as I just said to Mayor, we expect a lot of this unrealized marks to come back as they mature, which is over the next 2 thirds of the portfolio matures over the next 18 months. Speaker 700:29:46Okay. Thank you. And then could you talk about what drove the favorable prior year developments? And is that something that we could see continuing into the second half of the year? Thanks. Speaker 300:29:58Sure, Wilma. This is Brett. And as usual, let me just start out by as it relates to the P and C reserves. I think most know that we take a very conservative stance as it relates to our P and C reserving withholding our reserves at the upper half of the actuarial range. I would also add that we remain very comfortable with our aggregate reserve levels. Speaker 300:30:24To your point, on the PYD that we recorded in the Q2, obviously, we were encouraged by the emerging favorable trends that we're beginning to see, and I think it was in my prepared remarks in the auto claims development pattern, specifically in the auto physical damage coverage. So with that, let me turn it over to Mark who can kind of talk about the more specifically about the trends that we're seeing. Speaker 500:30:50Yes, absolutely. I mean all that development essentially came out of essentially collision and auto property damage, which are short tailed lines. And as those claims are closing, what we're finding is the severity on them has dropped precipitously from where we thought it was at the time when reserves were set. So at that time, we were still dealing with the tail end of mid to high single digit severity trends. And now, as they're settling out, we're seeing trends that are more in the very low single digits and that's really what's driving that prior year development. Speaker 500:31:31So, we have a very high level of confidence that we're right on these numbers. Speaker 300:31:37Yes. And I can't sit here and guarantee what's going to happen in the second half of this year, but I would just say this, if the trends continue to be favorable as Mark just described, it would not surprise me if we would have development. But to say that we will or we won't, I can't do that. But we feel very good about where we're at currently and the trends that we're seeing. Speaker 700:32:01Thank you. And if I could sneak one more in, could you just talk a little bit about share repurchases? They were a bit higher in the quarter. CAS came in line, but just maybe talk about that and what we could see in the second half of the year and maybe even 25 as P and C operations normalized? Thanks. Speaker 200:32:18Yes. Thank you. I'll let Ryan go through the details. But as we always say, share repurchase is just one piece of a very thoughtful capital management strategy. Ryan, you want to take it? Speaker 600:32:29Sure. Thanks for the question, Wilma. As we have a clear line of sight to returning to target profitability in 2025, that translates into about $50,000,000 of excess capital production and that's on top of the interest expense and a pretty compelling dividend. Our capital management priorities are number 1, to fund profitable growth. Number 2, to support that dividend. Speaker 600:32:54We've got a bit over 4% right now of the dividend yield, and we've increased that annually over the past 16 years. Our approach to buybacks has historically been opportunistic and will continue to be. Like I said, we have a clear line of sight to target And through yesterday, on a year to date basis, we bought back $7,700,000 at an average price of $33.30 So, pretty opportunistic approach to what we feel is an undervalued stock price. Speaker 700:33:32Okay. Thank you. Operator00:33:55And with no further questions, this will conclude our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Brendan DeWalle for any closing remarks. Speaker 100:34:03We'd like to thank you for joining our call today. Please reach out if there are any additional questions and have a great day. Speaker 600:34:11Thank you. Operator00:34:15The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by