Legal and General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) have seen steady progress across 2019, as evidenced in their final results published today.
The insurance firm reported a rise in assets under management on Wednesday, which has led to shares in green.
Looking at the figures, Legal and General reported that 2019 pretax profit was £2.16 billion – seeing a 1.3% jump from £2.13 billion reported in 2018.
Notably, this figure fell below company compiled market consensus which expected pretax profit to be around £2.29 billion.
On a better note, gross written premiums also surged 18% from £12.84 billion in 2018 to £15.2 billion.
Assets under management also rose for Legal and General – with this metric rising 18% to £1.196 trillion from £1.016 trillion at the start of the year.
In Legal and General’s retirement unit, the firm reported operating profit of £1.57 million, a slight rise of 1.4% compared to 2018.
In their Investment Management division, the firm saw operating profit jump 3.9% to £P423 million.
Finally, in their Insurance operations – operating profit rose 2% to £314 million.
Following the steady set of results, the firm increased its dividend to 17.57 pence per share from 16.42p in the year prior.
Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive commented: “Legal & General’s strategy of Inclusive Capitalism, underpinned by structural growth drivers, has enabled us to achieve our five year EPS growth ambition in four years, growing 58% since 2015.
Our five growing, profitable and increasingly international businesses compete in attractive, growing markets and work together to deliver economically and socially useful customer solutions. Society’s increasing focus on net zero carbon, ESG investing and levelling up through investment in all regions plays to our strengths, creating future growth opportunities.
Having delivered EPS growth of 16% to 28.7p, dividends up 7% to 17.57p, and a 20% plus ROE, we are well-positioned for the future and we remain ambitious.”
The firm gave shareholders a confidence sentiment going forward, adding: “Our strategy and growth drivers have yielded reliably strong returns, both dividend and ROE, for our shareholders and we are confident they will continue to deliver growth into the future as we execute on our strategy based on inclusive capitalism.
Our confidence in future growth and dividend paying capacity is underpinned by the Group’s strong balance sheet with £7.3 billion in surplus regulatory capital and significant buffers to absorb a market downturn. We have a proven operating model which is reinforced by robust risk management practices”.
Shares in Legal and General Group trade at 268p (+1.17%). 4/3/20 10:44BST.