The past month can hardly be described as bullish for life insurance stocks.
For the fourth week running, share prices of most leading life insurers tracked by LifeHealthPro declined, albeit modestly. But the dips don't come as a surprise, given that major indices have also been trending in negative territory.
And so it goes for this sixth installment of a weekly analysis of the stock performance of 10 leading publicly held life insurers. The 10 companies are the same as those featured in an August 21 LifeHealthPro story listing the top 10 life insurers based on their second quarter net income.
For the week ending Oct. 17, all but two companies experienced share price declines over the five days.
Moving Prudential Financial from the top spot among the worst performers was Ameriprise Financial: The insurer's shares dropped $2.36 to close on Friday at $112.30. Reinsurance Group of America's stock fell $1.80, ending the week at $76. In third place among the poorest performers was Prudential, whose shares edged down $1.48, ending at $81.06.
Other stocks among the top 10 that lost value included:
- Aflac: $0.55
- AIG: $0.76
- Lincoln: -$0.94
- MetLife: -$0.89
- Principal: -$0.10
- Unum: -$0.44
- Voya: -$0.95
The two exceptions to the downward trend were Aflac and AIG. Shares of the first rose $0.55, closing on Friday at $57.01. AIG's stock edged up $0.76, ending the week at $50.76
Retreating in tandem with the top 10 were several major indices. Over the five days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 155.02 points, closing at 16,380.41.
The S&P 500 edged down 18.89 points. The technology-heavy NASDAQ composite index dipped 16.47 points. Bucking the downward trends, the iShares Russell 2000 index moved (just barely) into positive territory, rising 2.2 points.
The following pages give a company-by-company breakdown of the insurers' stock performance during the previous week.
Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 17-Oct-14 | 56.54 | 57.04 | 56.14 | 57.01 |
| 16-Oct-14 | 55.02 | 56.17 | 54.99 | 55.86 |
| 15-Oct-14 | 56.01 | 56.54 | 55.03 | 55.8 |
| 14-Oct-14 | 56.05 | 57.15 | 56.01 | 56.84 |
| 13-Oct-14 | 56.46 | 56.77 | 55.94 | 56 |
| 5-day share price increase/decrease: $0.55 | ||||
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 17-Oct-14 | 50.1 | 50.98 | 49.98 | 50.76 |
| 16-Oct-14 | 48.95 | 50 | 48.68 | 49.4 |
| 15-Oct-14 | 49.13 | 49.8 | 48.56 | 49.69 |
| 14-Oct-14 | 50.03 | 50.6 | 49.9 | 50.07 |
| 13-Oct-14 | 50 | 50.45 | 49.71 | 49.81 |
| 5-day share price increase/decrease: $0.76 | ||||
Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE: AMP)
| Date | Open | High | Low | Close |
| 17-Oct-14 | 110.71 | 112.71 | 110.71 | 112.3 |
| 16-Oct-14 | 107.07 | 110.89 | 106.44 | 109.87 |
| 15-Oct-14 | 109.72 | 109.94 | 105.41 | 109.35 |
| 14-Oct-14 | 112.33 | 113.19 | 111.3 | 111.8 |
| 13-Oct-14 | 114.66 | 115.38 | 111.67 | 111.78 |
| 5-day share price increase/decrease: -$2.36 | ||||
