Employers Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 1, 2024

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 2024 Second Quarter Employers Holdings, Inc. Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

Operator

I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Lori Brown, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Marvin. Good morning, and welcome, everyone, to the Q2 2024 Earnings Call for Employers. Today's call is being recorded and webcast from the Investors section of our website, where a replay will be available following the call. Presenting today are Kathy Antonello, our Chief Executive Officer and Mike Paquette, our Chief Financial Officer. Statements made during this conference call that are not based on historical facts are considered forward looking statements.

Speaker 1

These statements are made in reliance on the Safe Harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although we believe the expectations expressed in our forward looking statements are reasonable, risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to be materially different from our expectations, including the risks set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All remarks made during the call are current only at the time of the call and will not be updated to reflect subsequent developments. The company also uses its website as a means of disclosing material non public information and for complying with disclosure obligations under the SEC's Regulation FD. Such disclosures will be included on the Investors section of our website.

Speaker 1

Accordingly, investors should monitor that portion of our website in addition to following our press releases, SEC filings, public conference calls and webcasts. In our earnings press release and in our remarks or responses to questions, we may use non GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations of these non GAAP measures to our GAAP results are included in our financial supplement as an attachment to our earnings press release, our investor presentation and any other materials available in the Investors section on our website. And now, I'll turn the call over to Kathy. Thank you, Lori.

Speaker 1

Good morning to everyone, and welcome to our Q2 2024 Earnings Call. Today, we will follow our typical agenda, where I'll begin by providing some highlights of our Q2 2024 financial results. I'll then hand it over to Mike for more details on our financials. And prior to Q and A, I'll come back to you with some additional commentary. Our 2nd quarter results were very strong.

Speaker 1

Our adjusted net income per share of 1.10 dollars was the 6th highest quarterly result in our last 10 years of operation. Higher new and renewal premiums, strong net investment income and continued net investment gains drove year over year increases in revenue for both the quarter and the 1st 6 months of 2024. Our steady growth in written premium resulted from a 9% increase in new business and a 10% increase in renewal business, partially offset by lower final audit premium recognition. Excluding audit premium adjustments, our gross written premiums increased 10% for the quarter, with all major distribution channels contributing to the growth. Our investment performance was also a boost to revenue, with strong net investment income and further net unrealized gains from our common stock and other investments.

Speaker 1

From an underwriting standpoint, our mid year full reserve study led to the recognition of $9,300,000 of net favorable prior year loss reserve development from our voluntary business. That action, coupled with a meaningful decrease in underwriting expenses, led to a combined ratio of 95.4 percent, excluding the LPT. And our current accident year combined ratio, excluding both the LPT and prior year development, was 100.2%, which is the lowest it's been since the Q4 of 2018. We believe that our accident year 2024 loss ratio of 64%, along with our existing provision for a potential increase in medical inflation positions us well from a reserving standpoint. I'm particularly pleased with our underwriting and general and administrative expense ratio this quarter of 22%, which is down sharply from 26% a year ago and is the lowest expense since the Q3 of 2018.

Speaker 1

The decrease was primarily the result of the CRB integration plan, which we executed in the Q4 of 2023. With that, Mike will now provide a deeper dive into our financials and then I'll return to provide my closing remarks. Mike?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Kathy. Our gross premiums written were $208,000,000 an increase of 5%. As Kathy mentioned, the increase was primarily due to higher new and renewal premiums, partially offset by lower final audit premiums. Net premiums earned were $188,000,000 an increase of 6%. Our losses and loss adjustment expenses were $109,000,000 versus $91,000,000 a year ago.

Speaker 2

The increase was primarily the result of higher net earned premiums and less net favorable prior year loss reserve development. We recognized $9,000,000 of net favorable development during the Q2 versus $20,000,000 of net favorable development a year ago. To both mitigate our overall tail risk and generate additional reserve salvage, we've continued to settle claims throughout 2024 on an accelerated basis consistent with that of prior years. Commission expenses were $27,000,000 versus $24,000,000 a year ago and our commission expense ratio was 14.3% versus 13.3% a year ago. The increase in our commission expense ratio was primarily related to an increase in new business writings, which are typically subject to a higher initial commission rate.

Speaker 2

The increase further resulted from a reversal of commission expense made in the Q2 of 2023 relating to uncollected premium. Underwriting and general and administrative expenses were $41,000,000 versus $46,000,000 and our underwriting and general administrative expense ratio was 22% versus 26% a year ago. The decrease was primarily the result of the success of our Cerity integration plan as Kathy previously mentioned. Our net investment income was $27,000,000 for the quarter, a slight increase from a year ago. The increase was primarily due to higher yields on our fixed maturity investments, largely offset by the unwinding of our former Federal Home Loan Bank leveraged investment strategy in late 2023.

Speaker 2

When considering the nearly $2,000,000 of interest expense that we incurred from that former strategy in the Q2 of 2023, our net investment income was actually up more than 8% year over year. Our fixed maturities currently have a duration of 4.4 and an average credit quality of A plus Our weighted average book yield was 4.3% at quarter end, which is up nicely from 4.1% a year ago. Our net income this quarter was favorably impacted by $4,000,000 of net after tax unrealized gains generated from equity securities and other investment holdings, both of which are reflected on our income statement and our stockholders' equity was unfavorably impacted by $5,000,000 of net after tax investment losses generated from fixed maturity holdings, which are reflected on our balance sheet. During the Q2, we repurchased $19,000,000 of our common stock at an average price of $41.53 per share. And thus far, we have repurchased an additional $3,000,000 of our common stock in the 3rd quarter at an average price of $42.56 per share.

Speaker 2

Our remaining share repurchase authority currently stands at $44,000,000 And yesterday, our Board of Directors declared a 3rd quarter 2020 4 regular quarterly dividend of $0.30 per share. This dividend is payable on August 28 to stockholders of record on August 14. And with that, I'll now turn the call back to Kathy.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mike. This quarter we returned $27,000,000 to our stockholders through a combination of regular quarterly dividends and share repurchases at an average price that was highly accretive to our adjusted book value per share. After considering dividends declared over the last 12 months, our book value per share, including the deferred gain, has increased 14% to $44.91 and our adjusted book value per share has increased by more than 10% to $48.89 Both the combined ratio and the growth in our adjusted book value per share continue to be our preferred metrics for measuring our success. And we're confident we will see further improvements in these metrics in the future. In closing, last month, we made the bittersweet announcement that Mike will be retiring at the end of March in 2025.

Speaker 1

And I want to personally acknowledge his tremendous contributions to the organization over the past 7 years. And with that, operator, we will now take questions.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct the question Our first question comes from the line of Mark Hughes of Choice. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Good morning. Kathy, the hello. In California, does workers' comp reimbursement follow Medicare fee schedules in whole or in part?

Speaker 1

Yes. It is my understanding that the California medical fee schedules are tied to Medicare. I think I believe there are some adjustments. It's not dollar for dollar, but yes, they are tied to Medicare.

Speaker 3

Yes. And under the circumstances, are we to think that the risk of future medical inflation is limited if fee schedules there and many other states, I'm not exactly sure of the numbers, but if those are tied to those fee schedules, I assume the government is going to be just as motivated to suppress those costs the future as they have been in the past. So should we think that medical inflation is less of a risk?

Speaker 1

Well, I think generally speaking, the industry has done a really nice job over the last more than a decade of putting medical cost containment measures into place and those would include medical fee schedules for hospitals, physicians, inpatient and outpatient and so forth. Many, but not all of those fee schedules are tied to Medicare. And so I would think they would move somewhat in tandem. But the fee schedules that have been put in place have been very successful. I mean, you mentioned California in particular, back in I think it was back in 2013 when they passed Senate Bill 863 that was highly successful, wildly more successful than I think anyone predicted.

Speaker 1

And so, I would just say, generally speaking, the fee schedules and workers' compensation are working and they are helping to keep medical costs under control.

Speaker 3

When we think about the top line outlook, audit premiums are still positive, not as positive as they've been. But we've talked about the kind of your expansion and appetite and you could throw in competition. Any kind of general commentary about what you expect when it comes to top line growth, keeping in mind all the different drivers?

Speaker 1

Yes. I mean, I'm pleased with the level of top line growth that we're seeing. We did see some pressure this quarter in terms of offsetting the new and renewal business growth. There was an offset in terms of audit pickup slowing down. We also decreased our audit accrual during the quarter.

Speaker 1

None of it, I would say, is surprising to me though when you look at the underlying economic conditions as of June, just to give you a few numbers, the BLS annual change in employment and hourly wages for leisure and hospitality, which is where a lot of our focus is.

Speaker 2

Kathy, are you there?

Speaker 3

Kathy, if you were there, I have lost you. Hello, Kathy, can you hear me?

Speaker 1

Can. My apologies for that.

Speaker 3

Yes. No, it's probably me. I'm sure I did something wrong.

Speaker 1

I'm sure.

Speaker 3

I had asked a question about the growth outlook and you had just started a comment. So I'll say it again, if you take the kind of competition, appetite, all that, what should we think about top line?

Speaker 1

Yes. So I am not terribly surprised with the decrease we saw in audit pickups this quarter, especially given the underlying economic conditions that we're seeing. And so just to give you a few numbers, as of June, the BLS annual change in employment and hourly wages was 6% for leisure and hospitality. That compares to 10.5% a year ago. And that reduction in the change in employment and wages is what's putting pressure on our audit pickups.

Speaker 1

And it's do you call again? Hello? Can you hear me?

Speaker 3

Yes, I can hear you. You're coming through loud and clear.

Speaker 1

Okay. Sorry about that. So that is what is putting pressure on our audit pickups, and it's also causing us to decrease our audit accrual, and it's bringing our top line growth down a bit. We're not seeing decreases in terms of the new business premium that's coming through and our renewal premiums continue to be strong too. So just to give you a couple of numbers, we ended the quarter with an audit accrual of 34,200,000 dollars and that's a decrease of $5,100,000 this quarter.

Speaker 1

That compares to an increase in the Q2 of 2023. So that decrease in accrual was a meaningful contributor to both written and earned premium this quarter. But then when you look at audit pickup, they were $4,900,000 this quarter versus $7,700,000 in the Q2 of 2023. Like I said earlier, if you exclude the final audit pickup in the change in a pool, our gross written premium was up about 10% in the Q2 of 2024 relative to the Q2 of 2023. Endorsement premium is also coming in very strong.

Speaker 1

We recognized about $13,000,000 in endorsements and about $3,000,000 in non compliant premium. So the growth that we're seeing is coming from all of our major distribution channels, like I said, strong endorsement premium. You mentioned appetite expansion. That is a meaningful contributor to the growth. I think about $41,000,000 of our premium this quarter came from our appetite expansion efforts.

Speaker 1

And that's performing at a very good loss ratio, very similar to what we're seeing for all of our other line all of our other classes.

Speaker 3

Appreciate that detail. And then one final one on the expenses. Mike, the step down sequentially this quarter, pretty striking historically the progression from 1Q to 2Q is steady or up a little bit. What's the right run rate? First, was there anything unusual this quarter, one timers, that sort of thing?

Speaker 3

And then is this the kind of the starting base, so to speak, and apply whatever expense growth or seasonality, that sort of thing, but the 41.4%, is that a good number as a base, starting base?

Speaker 2

It's hard to say, Mark. And the reason why is our expenses can ebb and flow. I'm not aware of anything that's particularly unusual in terms of our Q2 of 2024 expenses, but they can vary dramatically based on incentive accruals, timing of IT projects and all of those types of things. If you recall, when we had this call at year end, we kind of mentioned that the Cerity runoff or the Cerity integration was going to provide at least a point and a half of relief on our expense ratio versus what it would otherwise be. So that's probably the same thing to bring into the balance of the year, but keep in mind it will ebb and flow.

Speaker 3

And so if we think of last year, I think it was about 25%. Is that the way to think about it? 0.5 percent off of that is a good way to look at

Speaker 2

With expenses and commissions, I would always look at the year to date because that'll take out some of the noise. But if you look at say the year to date and then look at at least 1.5 percentage points of savings or so that's about what the best guess I could give you right now.

Speaker 3

Yes. Okay. I'll squeeze in one more if I might. Kathy, competition, anything you would say about level of competition that people see more competitors more enthused about workers' comp, about the same?

Speaker 1

Yes. I'd say it's about the same. When you look at the sectors and policy sizes that we write, we would continue to say that the environment is fairly competitive. When we look at our renewal book and adjust for changes in exposure, our 2024 average rate showed a year over year rate decrease of between 3% 4% and that's pretty typical of what we've been seeing over the last several quarters. So, yes, So a lot of that is being driven by the decreases in loss costs that the bureaus are filing, but it's still competitive.

Speaker 3

Great. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Mark.

Operator

Thank you. We'll Our next question comes from the line of Matt Carletti of Citizens JMP. Your line is now open.

Speaker 3

Hey, thanks. Good morning.

Speaker 1

Good morning, Matt.

Speaker 4

Kathy, my first question kind of actually follows on from one of Mark's questions on Medicare. But my understanding is there's specific to Florida, there's some somewhat significant fee schedule changes coming. I was hoping you could comment on kind of your ability to manage that, particularly in the context of Florida being more of an administered pricing state. So less, I guess, flexibility on how you can price each risk?

Speaker 1

Yes. It's a great Matt. I'll say internally, we haven't analyzed the legislation in Florida yet or in CCA's recent filing in response to those medical fee changes. My understanding is the changes are effective in January of 2025. And the primary driver of the increase is expected to be physician services and the cost of those services, a little bit coming from hospital outpatient.

Speaker 1

But I believe NCCI is projecting a 5.6% increase in costs as a result of those legislative changes. But as you said, the truth of the matter is with Florida being the last remaining administered pricing state, there isn't a whole lot that we can do if we disagree with the pricing, other than tighten our underwriting standards. But in terms of pricing flexibility in Florida, we have none. So we'll just have to look at the business that we're writing and if we feel it's necessary, tighten our underwriting standards from a declination standpoint.

Speaker 4

Okay. Thanks. That's helpful. And then just one for Mike, on reserves, on the favorable reserve development in the quarter. Can you give us any color on trends by accident year or just kind of anything kind of peel back the onion a little bit on some of the movements behind the scenes that led to that good result?

Speaker 2

Sure. So the favorable development that we saw this quarter was predominantly years 2022 prior. We did have a little bit of unfavorable experience in 2023 that partially offset the amount that we recognize relating to other states with some large losses that occurred late in the year and have developed a little bit unfavorably in this calendar year. And that's where we came out.

Speaker 4

Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Speaker 1

Thanks, Matt.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for next question. Our next question comes from the line of Bob Farnam of Janney Montgomery Scott. Your line

Speaker 4

is now open. Yes. Hey there and good morning. My primary question was on the performance of the book of expansion business, but Kathy, it sounds like that business is performing as expected or in line with your other business. I guess I'll focus on another question I had was, is there much of a difference between the performance of the book that you're getting from ADP versus your non ADP book?

Speaker 1

We do analyze those results separately. And the ADP book of business for us has always been very favorable and it continues to be. We have a very strong relationship with them and continue to. And I think it's a very strong book. We haven't seen any changes in that book of business.

Speaker 4

Okay. Yes, that's it for me. I just again, I want to think more interested in the expansion book of business, but again, you kind of already answered that. So thanks.

Speaker 1

Yes. That expansion book, we've been very, very pleased with the results that we're seeing there and have our intention is to continue to expand into new class codes as we see the environment is favorable. So continuing to do that.

Speaker 4

Great. Thanks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Bob.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions at this time. I'd now like to turn it back to Kathy Antiello for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you, Marvin, and thank you all for joining us this morning. I look forward to meeting with you again in October.

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

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Key Takeaways

  • Strong Q2 financials: Adjusted net income per share was $1.10—its 6th highest in a decade—driven by a 10% increase in gross written premiums and robust net investment income and gains.
  • Premium growth: New business rose 9% and renewals 10%, with all major distribution channels contributing; excluding audit adjustments, gross written premiums grew 10% year-over-year.
  • Underwriting discipline: The combined ratio was 95.4% (excluding LPT) and the current accident-year combined ratio hit 100.2%, the lowest since Q4 2018, supported by $9.3 million of favorable prior-year loss reserve development.
  • Expense efficiency: Underwriting and G&A expense ratio fell to 22% from 26% a year ago—the lowest since Q3 2018—thanks to the Q4 2023 Cerity integration plan.
  • Capital returns: The company repurchased $19 million of stock at an average $41.53 per share, declared a $0.30 Q3 dividend, and grew book value per share 14% to $44.91.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Employers Q2 2024
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