Globe Life Inc. (NYSE:GL) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call October 26, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Stephen Mota – Senior Director, Investor Relations

Frank Svoboda – Co-Chief Executive Officer

Matt Darden – Co-Chief Executive Officer

Tom Kalmbach – Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Wes Carmichael – Wells Fargo

Jimmy Bhullar – JPMorgan

Wilma Burdis – Raymond James

Ryan Krueger – KBW

Maxwell Fritscher – Truist Securities

Tom Gallagher – Evercore ISI

Suneet Kamath – Jefferies

Operator

Hello, and welcome to the Globe Life Incorporated Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Release Conference Call. Please note this conference is being recorded and for duration of the call your lines will be on listen-only. However, you have the opportunity to ask questions [Operator Instructions]

I will now hand you over to your host, Stephen Mota, Senior Director, Investor Relations, to begin today’s conference. Thank you.

Stephen Mota

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Joining the call today, Frank Svoboda and Matt Darden, our Co-Chief Executive Officers; Tom Kalmbach, our Chief Financial Officer; Mike Majors, our Chief Strategy Officer; and Brian Mitchell, our General Counsel. Some of our comments or answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that provided for general guidance purposes only. Accordingly, please refer to our earnings release 2022 10-K and any subsequent Forms 10-Q on file with the SEC. Some of our comments may also contain non-GAAP measures. Please see our earnings release and website for discussion of these terms and reconciliations to GAAP measures.

I will now turn the call over to Frank.

Frank Svoboda

Thank you Stephen and good morning everyone. In the third quarter, net income was $257 million, or $2.68 per share, compared to $191 million, or $1.94 per share a year ago. Net operating income for the quarter was $260 million, or $2.71 per share, an increase of 24% from a year ago. The strong growth in net income and net operating income is due in part to the re-measurement loss taken in the year-ago quarter due to the unlocking of assumptions under LDTI. Tom will discuss this further in his comments.

On a GAAP-reported basis, return on equity through September 30th is 22.6% and book value per share is $48.51. Excluding accumulated other comprehensive income, or AOCI, return on equity is 14.7% and book value per share as of September 30th is $74.31, up 11% from a year ago. In our life insurance operations, premium revenue for the third quarter increased 4% from the year-ago quarter to $788 million. For the year, we expect life premium revenue to grow between 3.5% to 4%. Life underwriting margin was $300 million, up 21% from a year ago. The increase in life underwriting margin was due in part to a re-measurement gain recognized this quarter due to improved claims experience versus a re-measurement loss taken in the year-ago quarter.