VOYA

Interested in Voya Financial, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Voya is delivering steady earnings growth across retirement, investment management, and employee benefits. Strong capital returns continue through buybacks and dividends, with $200 million returned in the first quarter. Voya offers stability and income appeal, though much of its near-term upside may already be priced in. Voya Financial (NYSE: VOYA) is probably not a household name, but it is workplace name for millions of employees who get their benefits or retirement plans through the company. One of the largest providers of benefits and investment plans, Voya has shown repeatedly that it can grow earnings, widen its profit margins, and push its cash back to stockholders. With more than $1 trillion in combined assets under management and administration, Voya does periodically surprise investors, but its track record indicates it is both a smooth earner and consistent compounder. → Voya Financial Grows Earnings Across All 3 Business Segments For investors with a longer horizon, Voya’s priority for capital returns may be a solid alternative to Wall Street’s daily darlings chasing the hype economy. Voya operates in three primary segments: retirement, investment management, and employee benefits. The company’s retirement business is the anchor, serving employers who offer workplace savings plans and millions of American workers who enroll in them. The company’s investment management handles assets for both institutional clients and retail investors. The employee benefits segment provides group life insurance, disability coverage, and other products, such as hospital indemnity and accident coverage. → SpaceX Gets the Attention, But These 4 Stocks Could Get the Returns Each of these three segments finished strong in the first quarter. Net income available to common shareholders came in at $165 million, or $1.75 per diluted share, representing a 23% jump compared with the year-ago period. Adjusted operating earnings of $214 million, or $2.26 per diluted share, rose 13% year-over-year and above expectations. By stripping out investment gains and other items, operating earnings can show a clearer picture of the health of an insurance and retirement company. The growth was broad-based. Retirement pre-tax adjusted operating earnings rose slightly to $209 million. Investment management climbed mor...

Voya Financial’s first quarter results were met with a significant negative market reaction, as investors focused on the company’s operating income shortfall despite revenue and non-GAAP EPS exceeding Wall Street’s expectations. Management attributed the quarter’s performance to continued strength in Retirement and Investment Management, alongside disciplined execution in Employee Benefits. CEO Heather Hamilton Lavallee highlighted positive developments in net flows for Retirement and emphasized the resilience of Voya’s diversified business model. However, the company faced scrutiny over the timing and sustainability of operating income improvements, particularly in light of reserve releases and ongoing challenges in the Stop Loss insurance segment. Is now the time to buy VOYA? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $1.93 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.67 billion (2.3% year-on-year growth, 15.4% beat) Adjusted EPS: $2.26 vs analyst estimates of $2.00 (12.8% beat) Adjusted Operating Income: $14.5 million vs analyst estimates of $257 million (0.8% margin, 94.4% miss) Operating Margin: 11.9%, up from 9.2% in the same quarter last year Market Capitalization: $7.27 billion While we enjoy listening to the management's commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls are the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Morgan Stanley: Asked if recent favorable Group Life loss ratios signal a new lower range. CFO Michael Robert Katz responded it is too early to revise targets but expects better-than-average results if current trends persist. TD Cowen: Inquired about conservative reserving in Stop Loss and potential for reserve releases. Katz confirmed high-end reserving and expressed optimism about further improvement as risk selection and pricing actions take hold. KBW: Questioned whether Stop Loss margin gains could negatively affect growth in other Employee Benefits lines. Jay Stuart Kaduson, CEO of Workplace Solutions, explained Stop Loss is increasingly a differentiator and does not cannibalize growth in other products. JPMorgan: Queried operational changes driving faster Stop Loss claims emergence. Katz attributed this to both internal process improvements and industry trends, with claim exp...

Manulife Financial Corporation MFC delivered first-quarter 2026 core earnings of 77 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.5%. The bottom line increased 11.6% year over year. Core earnings of $1.3 billion (C$1.8 billion) increased 8.3% year over year. The increase in core earnings was driven by strong business growth in Asia and Global WAM, along with the net positive impact of 2025 updates to actuarial methods and assumptions, as well as a net improvement in insurance experience. It was partially offset by lower investment spreads in the United States and the impact of the eMPF transition in Hong Kong. Manulife Financial Corp price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Manulife Financial Corp Quote New business value (NBV) in the reported quarter was $688 million (C$944 million), up 8.9% year over year. Annualized premium equivalent (APE) sales increased 11.1% year over year to $2 billion (C$2.8 billion). New business contractual service margin (CSM) increased 17.7% year over year to $743 million (C$1,019 million). The increase in APE sales, new business CSM and NBV reflects the strength of the diversified business portfolio. The Global Wealth and Asset Management business generated net outflows of $3.2 billion (C$4.4 billion) compared to net inflows of $0.3 billion (C$0.5 billion) in the year-ago quarter. Core return on equity, measuring the company’s profitability, expanded 90 basis points year over year to 16.5%. The Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test ratio was 136% as of March 31, 2026. The Global Wealth and Asset Management division’s core earnings were $326 million (C$448 million), up 3.1% year over year. The increase was driven by higher net fee income from favorable market impacts over the past 12 months, contributions from the Manulife Comvest business and continued expense discipline. It was partially offset by the impact of the eMPF transition in Hong Kong and lower performance fees. Retirement net outflows of $2 billion (C$2.8 billion) increased 11.1% year over year, driven by higher member withdrawals reflecting higher account balances from market growth and higher retirement plan redemptions in the United States. It was partially offset by lower retirement plan redemptions in Canada. Retail net outflows of $4.2 billion (C$5.8 billion) compared to net inflows of $0.3 billion (C$0.5 billion) in the year-ago quarter, primarily...

In early May 2026, Voya Financial, Inc. reported first-quarter revenue of US$2,031 million and net income of US$182 million, with basic earnings per share from continuing operations rising to US$1.78 year on year. Beyond the headline growth, Voya paired its earnings beat with about US$200 million of capital returned via dividends and share repurchases, underlining active capital management. Next, we’ll consider how this combination of earnings outperformance and accelerated capital returns may reshape Voya Financial’s existing investment narrative. Rare earth metals are an input to most high-tech devices, military and defence systems and electric vehicles. The global race is on to secure supply of these critical minerals. Beat the pack to uncover the 33 best rare earth metal stocks of the very few that mine this essential strategic resource. To own Voya Financial, you need to believe in its role as a scaled retirement, investment management, and benefits provider, where growth in participants and assets can support steady earnings and disciplined capital returns. The latest earnings beat and roughly US$200 million of capital returned reinforce that near term catalyst, while the most immediate risk remains volatility in medical costs and stop loss claims, which this quarter’s results have not fully put to rest. Among recent announcements, the board’s affirmation of a US$0.47 per share common dividend for the first quarter of 2026 stands out, as it pairs with active buybacks to frame Voya’s capital return profile after the earnings surprise. For investors focused on catalysts like integration of the OneAmerica acquisition and expanding retirement flows, that dividend decision helps signal how management is currently balancing growth investment with ongoing cash returns. Yet beneath the strong quarter, accelerating medical cost inflation in the stop loss business remains a risk investors should be aware of... Read the full narrative on Voya Financial (it's free!) Voya Financial's narrative projects $8.4 billion revenue and $1.0 billion earnings by 2029. This implies relatively flat yearly revenue growth and an earnings increase of about $387 million from $613.0 million today. Uncover how Voya Financial's forecasts yield a $86.00 fair value, a 8% upside to its current price. Two Simply Wall St Community fair value estimates for Voya span from US$86 to about US$1...

Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated RGA reported first-quarter 2026 adjusted operating earnings of $6.97 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12.6%. The bottom line rose 21.9% from the year-ago quarter. RGA's operating revenues of $6.7 billion beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.7%. The top line improved 19.9% year over year on higher net investment income, net premiums and other revenues. RGA reported strong first-quarter results, driven by solid growth in Financial Solutions businesses across the United States, EMEA and the Asia/Pacific, along with higher investment income and premium growth. However, higher expenses and weakness in the United States and Latin America Traditional segment partially offset the strong performance. Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated Quote Net premiums of $4.6 billion increased 14.3% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimates by 2.4%. Investment income improved 19.3% from the prior-year quarter to $1.7 billion and beat the Zacks Consensus Estimates by 7.4%. The increase was driven by a larger average invested asset base and higher earned yields. The average investment yield increased to 4.93% from 4.64% in the prior-year period, driven by higher variable investment income. Total benefits and expenses increased 23.8% year over year to $6.1 billion on higher claims and other policy benefits, interest credited, policy acquisition costs and other insurance expenses, other operating expenses, and Interest credited. U.S. and Latin America: Total pre-tax adjusted operating income was $256 million, which increased 23.7% year over year. The Traditional segment reported a pre-tax adjusted operating income of $138 million, which decreased 1.4% year over year. Net premiums increased 0.6% from the year-ago quarter to $1.9 billion. The Financial Solutions segment’s pre-tax adjusted operating income increased 76% to $118 million. Canada: Total pre-tax adjusted operating income rose 11.6% year over year to $48 million. The Traditional segment delivered a 18.7% year-over-year increase in pre-tax adjusted operating income to $48 million. Net premiums grew 6.3% to $339 million, benefiting from a $2 million favorable impact from foreign currency exchange rates during the quarter. The Financial Solutions segment’s pre-tax ad...

Brighthouse Financial, Inc. BHF reported first-quarter 2026 adjusted net income of $4.35 per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.4%. However, the bottom line grew 4.3% year over year. The quarterly results reflected lower premiums, a decline in adjusted net investment income and lower sales, offset by reduced expenses. Brighthouse Financial, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Brighthouse Financial, Inc. Quote Total operating revenues of $2.1 billion decreased 3.4% year over year, due to lower premiums, universal life and investment-type product policy fees, net investment income and other revenues. Premiums of $168 million decreased 9.7% year over year. Adjusted net investment income was $1.3 billion in the quarter under review, down 1.8% year over year, primarily due to a reduction in the size of the institutional spread margin business. The investment income yield was 4.24%. Total expenses were $2.5 billion, which declined 8.4% year over year. Corporate expenses, pretax, were $227 million, which declined 5% year over year. Annuities recorded an adjusted operating income of $324 million, up 3.2% year over year. Annuity sales decreased 4% year over year to $2.2 billion. Life’s adjusted operating loss was $6 million against earnings of $9 million in the year-ago reported quarter. It reflected a lower underwriting margin and lower net investment income, partially offset by lower expenses. Life insurance sales decreased 11% quarter over quarter to $32 million. Adjusted operating loss at Run-off was $48 million, narrower than the year-ago loss of $64 million. It reflects a higher underwriting margin and lower expenses. Corporate & Other incurred an adjusted operating loss of $31 million, wider than the year-ago loss of $24 million, reflecting lower net investment income, partially offset by a higher tax benefit. Cash and cash equivalents were $4.9 billion, up 5.1% year over year. Shareholders’ equity of $5.5 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2026 increased 6.2% year over year. Book value per share, excluding accumulated other comprehensive income, was $139.63 as of March 31, 2026, down 1.6% year over year. Statutory combined total adjusted capital was $5 billion as of March 31, 2026, down 9.1% year over year. As of March 31, 2026, the estimated combined risk-based capital ratio was between 430% and 450%. Brighthouse Financial cu...

NEW YORK, May 07, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TOMS Capital Investment Management ("TCIM"), one of the largest shareholders of Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) ("Voya" of the "Company"), today issued the below statement following the Company’s first quarter 2026 earnings call: "As we recently expressed, Voya is one of the most compelling and undervalued franchises in financial services. Voya has outperformed peers in delivering consistent net inflows, recently surpassing $1 trillion in assets while prudently avoiding aggressive private credit risk. Our issue is not with Voya’s franchise quality; we are investors because of it. Rather, our issue is with current management’s lack of urgency as its stubbornness to change course has jarringly de-rated the multiple. On yesterday’s Q1 2026 earnings call, CEO Heather Lavallee assured analysts and investors that there is ‘no daylight between the Board and management on the strategic path forward.’ That is precisely the problem. Under the tenure of prior CEO Rod Martin, Voya had won credibility as a fresh spin-off from ING and drove multiple expansion by executing a series of divestitures to pivot from a capital-intensive life insurer to a capital-light retirement platform. Since Ms. Lavallee took over in ‘23, Voya’s ‘strategic path forward’ has been to burn that credibility with both its investor base and the research community. This has caused Voya to trade at a historically wider discount to core peers and counterintuitively even to its own multiple as a capital-intensive life insurer. Voya’s three-year shareholder return ranks 14 out of 17 against Voya’s self-selected proxy peer set – with two of the three names behind Voya being sub-$500 million market-cap businesses that bear little operational resemblance to a $1 trillion asset platform. For this clear underperformance, Ms. Lavallee earned more than $16.2 million in total compensation over the course of 2025. CFO Michael Katz and Group CEO of Workplace Solutions, Jay Kaduson (who oversees the widely derided stop-loss business), each earned more than $7.5 million. This is not pay-for-performance; rather, this is disregard for shareholder value. That disregard was also clear to us during yesterday’s earnings call, when respected sell-side analysts – who pressed on the multi-year valuation gap, the credibility of management's own asserted timeline on the stop-loss tur...

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — Heather Lavallee Chief Financial Officer — Michael Katz Head of Retirement — Jay Kaduson Chief Investment Officer — Matthew Toms Heather Lavallee: Thank you, Mei Ni. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Let's turn to Slide 4. In 2025, Voya delivered strong financial and commercial results that exceeded our targets and accelerated our growth strategy. We delivered over $1 billion of pretax adjusted operating earnings for the full year and significantly grew earnings across all segments. We generated $775 million of excess cash, well above our target. And in 2025, combined Retirement and Investment Management assets surpassed $1 trillion. This achievement illustrates our scale and reinforces the value of our integrated business model. These financial results reflect our outperformance against the priorities we set at the start of the year, accelerating commercial momentum in Retirement and Investment Management, successfully integrating OneAmerica and improving margins in Employee Benefits. Voya's financial performance and strategic progress show the strength of our franchise and our team's consistent focus on execution. Before Mike walks through the quarterly and full year numbers, I'd like to touch on a few key highlights from 2025. In Retirement, we delivered exceptional results across our business. Defined contribution net flows surpassed $28 billion, the highest in Voya's history, and our participant base is fast approaching 10 million accounts, demonstrating our expanding reach. The OneAmerica integration significantly exceeded our financial targets while expanding the capabilities we offer clients and broadening our reach with advisers. We also continued to expand wealth management as a high-margin growth engine. The business generated over $200 million in net revenues in 2025, contributing to our exceptional financial results in Retirement and helping us serve our customers to and through retirement. Across Retirement, our strong margins reflect our scale, our focus on driving profitable growth and our disciplined expense management as we invest in key growth initiatives. In Investment Management, we delivered strong results, reflecting the scale and breadth of our platform and the momentum we're seeing across the business. We delivered a rec...

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, August 6, 2025 at 10 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — Heather Hamilton Lavallee Chief Financial Officer — Michael Robert Katz Chief Growth Officer, Retirement & Employee Benefits — Jay Stuart Kaduson Chief Executive Officer, Investment Management — Matthew Toms Heather Hamilton Lavallee: Thank you, Mei Ni. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. Let's turn to Slide 4. In the first half of the year, our business model has proven its strength, driven by disciplined execution and our commitment to helping customers navigate a dynamic macro environment. Our retirement and investment management businesses are delivering attractive returns, reinforcing the value of our integrated approach to serving our clients. And in Employee Benefits, we continue to make progress on margin improvement, moving toward the levels of performance that have historically defined this business. We are operating from a position of strength with solid capital and liquidity positions to give us the flexibility to invest in growth, while maintaining a healthy balance sheet. This foundation enables us to deliver long-term value positioning Voya not just for today's environment, but for the growth opportunities ahead. Turning to Slide 5 for highlights from the quarter. Before commenting on our results, I want to share an important update in how we describe our workplace businesses. We're returning to our prior segment names with retirement and employee benefits replacing wealth solutions and health solutions, respectively. These industry aligned names better reflect the services and solutions Voya provides today. Moving to our results. We're encouraged by another solid quarter of performance across our businesses with strong contributions from each of our core segments. In the second quarter, we achieved a major milestone surpassing $1 trillion in total assets across our Retirement and Investment Management businesses, and we're now approaching nearly 10 million participant accounts in retirement alone. This accomplishment reflects the trust we have earned from our customers and the value proposition our integrated model provides. In Retirement, we delivered another strong quarter generating approximately $12 billion in total defined contribution net flows. Year- to-date, we have increased overall assets by more than $100 billion, includin...

Sun Life Financial Inc. SLF delivered first-quarter 2026 underlying net income of $1.38 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.2%. The bottom line increased 8.7% year over year. Underlying net income was $765 million (C$1 billion), which increased 5.2% year over year, driven by strong performance in Asia, reflecting business growth in Hong Kong and Canada from higher fee income driven by higher AUM. The increase was offset by lower results in Sun Life Asset Management, reflecting lower catch-up fees and net seed investment income at SLC Management, higher financing costs in Corporate, and the unfavorable impacts from foreign exchange translation. Revenues of $6.4 billion decreased 18.9% year over year. The quarterly results reflected higher premiums, favorable net investment results, higher sales and in-force business growth across the segments. Asset management gross flows & wealth sales of $45.4 billion (C$62.3 billion) increased 4.8% year over year. Group - Health & Protection sales of $402 million (C$552 million) declined 0.4% year over year. Individual - Protection sales of $840 million (C$1.15 billion) jumped 38.1% year over year. New business contractual service margin (CSM) was $313 million (C$429 million), up 11% year over year. Sun Life Financial Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Sun Life Financial Inc. Quote SLF Canada’s underlying net income was $270 million (C$370 million). Canada witnessed business growth that reflected higher premiums in Sun Life Health, higher fee income from higher AUM and favorable net investment results. It was partially offset by less favorable insurance experience. Asset management gross flows & Wealth sales of $4.3 billion ($6 billion) decreased 4.4% year over year. The decrease was due to lower large case sales compared to a strong prior year in Group Wealth defined contributions. It was offset by higher mutual fund sales in Individual Wealth and increased rollover volumes in Group Wealth. SLF U.S.’ underlying net income was $160 million, which increased 6% year over year, driven by higher results in In-force Management, reflecting favorable net investment results. It was offset by lower earnings in Dental, driven by lower revenues and the impact of a retroactive premium payment in the prior year. U.S. group sales of $160 million grew 30% year over year. The increase was due to higher medical s...

Image source: The Motley Fool. Wednesday, May 6, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — Heather Hamilton Lavallee Chief Financial Officer — Michael Robert Katz Head of Workplace Solutions — Jay Stuart Kaduson Chief Investment Officer — Matthew Toms Heather Hamilton Lavallee: Good morning and thank you for joining us today. Let us turn to slide four. Building on our 2025 performance, we are off to a strong start in 2026. In the first quarter, we delivered significant growth in revenues, earnings, and cash flows. We grew adjusted operating EPS by 13% year-over-year through strong execution across the enterprise while continuing to deliver a return on equity above 18%. And we generated approximately $200 million of excess capital, returning that same amount to shareholders through repurchases and dividends. Executing on our priorities, we are building on our strong momentum, maintaining robust margins in Retirement and Investment Management, and continuing to drive margin and earnings improvement in Employee Benefits. Our momentum is clear and our advantage comes from our diversified, resilient business model built to perform across markets and business cycles. I would like to touch on a few highlights from the quarter. In Retirement, we generated over $200 million in adjusted operating earnings, delivering trailing twelve-month margins of 39% while continuing to invest in future growth. We continue to expect positive net flows for the full year, more than offsetting the exit of a large recordkeeping plan in the first quarter, which was expected. Revenues grew year-over-year supported by more than $50 billion in annual recurring deposits, giving the business a resilient foundation across market conditions. Our acquisition of OneAmerica has been a strategic and operational success. It has meaningfully strengthened both the scale and earnings power of our Retirement business, which now serves nearly 10 million retirement accounts. We expect to complete the integration in the second quarter. And we are building on that strong foundation by expanding the advice, guidance, and planning we provide through our Wealth Management business, helping customers better meet their financial needs. In Wealth Management, expansion remains on track, with first-quarter revenues up more than 12% year-over-year. In Investment Management, we entered 2026 with strong momentum d...

NEW YORK, May 05, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA) announced today its first-quarter 2026 financial results: First quarter 2026 net income available to common shareholders of $165 million, or $1.75 per diluted share, up 23% from the prior year. First quarter 2026 after-tax adjusted operating earnings1 of $214 million, or $2.26 per diluted share, up 13% from the prior year. Delivered higher earnings and net revenue growth across all business segments. Generated and returned approximately $200 million of capital in the quarter through common dividends and share repurchases. "We delivered strong results in the first quarter of 2026, including a 13% year‑over‑year increase in after-tax adjusted operating earnings per share, driven by higher earnings across our Retirement, Investment Management and Employee Benefits businesses," said Heather Lavallee, chief executive officer, Voya Financial. "Building on our track record in 2025, our teams executed well in the quarter, despite a challenging macro environment, reflecting the strength of our diversified and complementary businesses and our continued focus on delivering solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers." "Our strong cash flow generation and capital return through share repurchases and dividends, while maintaining a healthy balance sheet, demonstrate the disciplined choices we are making to execute our strategy through this environment," Lavallee added. "With a strong start to the year, we remain confident in our strategy and in our ability to deliver value for customers and shareholders." First-Quarter 2026 Consolidated Results First-Quarter 2026 net income available to common shareholders was $165 million, or $1.75 per diluted share, 23% higher compared with $139 million, or $1.42 per diluted share, in first-quarter 2025. The increase was primarily due to higher after-tax adjusted operating earnings, lower losses on businesses exited, and lower acquisition integration costs. First-Quarter 2026 after-tax adjusted operating earnings were $214 million, or $2.26 per diluted share, 13% higher compared with $195 million, or $2.00 per diluted share, in first-quarter 2025. The increase was due to higher earnings contribution from all segments reflecting revenues generated from strong commercial success over the last year. Business Segment Results Retirement Retirement First-Qu...