Horace Mann Educators Corporation (NYSE:HMN) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call May 9, 2024 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Bret Conklin - Chief Financial Officer
Marita Zuraitis - President and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Desrochers - Senior Vice President, Property & Casualty, and Chief Corporate Actuary
Stephen McAnena - Chief Operating Officer
Matthew Sharpe - Executive Vice President, Supplemental & Group Benefits and Corporate Strategy
Ryan Greenier - Deputy Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer

Conference Call Participants

Meyer Shields - Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.
John Barnidge - Piper Sandler Companies
Matthew Carletti - Citizens JMP Securities, LLC

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Horace Mann Educators First Quarter 2024 Investor Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Bret Conklin, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Bret Conklin

Thank you, and welcome to Horace Mann’s discussion of our first quarter results. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release, 10-Q, investor supplement and investor presentation. Copies are available on the Investor’s page of our website. Marita Zuraitis, President and Chief Executive Officer, and I will give the formal remarks on today’s call. With us for Q&A, we have Matt Sharpe, Steve McAnena, Ryan Greenier, Mark Desrochers, and Mike Weckenbrock.

Before turning it over to Marita, I want to note that our presentation today includes forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, and we assume no obligation to update them. Actual results may differ materially due to a variety of factors, which are described in our news release and SEC filings. In our prepared remarks, we used some non-GAAP measures. Reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures are available in our investor supplement.

And now, I’ll turn the call over to Marita.

Marita Zuraitis

Thanks, Bret, and welcome, everyone. Yesterday, we reported first quarter core earnings of $0.60 per diluted share, a nearly 3-fold increase from last year’s first quarter, primarily due to the progress we’ve made in restoring P&C profitability. Total revenues were up 9%, and earned premiums and contract charges were up 8% over prior year. These results reflect strong sales momentum in our retail division, led by a 35% increase in Property & Casualty sales premium. We realized a dramatic improvement in the profitability of our P&C business and continued to benefit from the strength of our diversified business model built to meet the needs of educators and public sector employees.