Shares of state-owned insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India traded over 4% higher in the pre-open session today, reacting to a robust quarterly net profit the company recorded in Q4. Its net profit for the March quarter zoomed over 38% on year to Rs 19,012.8 crore.
Meanwhile its total income for the quarter under review declined on year due to a fall in net premium income of the insurer. Its total income for period slipped 4% on year and its net premium income went down by 3%. Beyond this, an over 98% steep decline in the company’s other income also put some pressure on the insurer’s earnings for the period.
On the other hand, LIC’s net investment income saw an uptick and rose over 10% during the quarter. The insurer said it will give out Rs 56,190.24 crore bonus to policyholders. The insurer’s board has also approved to pay a final dividend of Rs 12 apiece for the shareholders.
Individual new business premium for the financial year ended March increased 8%, while value of new business increased over 4%. Its VNB net margin expanded 80 basis points to 17.6%, the insurer informed the exchanges post-market hours on Tuesday.
LIC’s total asset under management rose over 6% to more than Rs 54.52 lakh crore at the end of FY25. “The year 2024-25 was a very exciting and challenging year for our business. After registering a very strong performance in the first six months, we had to redesign and relaunch products to comply with regulatory changes,” Siddhartha Mohanty, CEO and MD of LIC, said.
The insurance firm remains impacted due to introduction of new products from October 1, Goldman Sachs said as it maintained its ‘neutral’ rating on the stock. The insurer will continue to focus on non-par products and improve margins in medium term, the brokerage said. Goldman Sachs has pegged rs 880 as the target price for the stock, implying just 1% upside to the Tuesday’s closing price of Rs 870.70 on the NSE.
Another brokerage house Motilal Oswal also maintained its ‘buy’ call, as it has cut its estimates for LIC’s VNB margins for FY26 and FY27 by 50 basis points each. The brokerage has Rs 1,050 as the target price on the stock.
