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Cincinnati Financial (CINF) |
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WIKI ANALYSIS
The Cincinnati Financial Corporation's (NASDAQ: CINF) sells commercial and personal (property and casualty) insurance through the Cincinnati Insurance Company.
CINF has a high combined ratio, indicating low profitability, relative to its competitors, because of its customers' claims from Hurricane Ike, which has eroded its profit from property insurance.[1]
Corporate Overview
Cincinnati provides insurance products that local independent insurance agents sell to customers who need insurance. Cincinnati markets its standard insurance products through a network of 1,000 independent insurance retailing agencies in 34 states, though notably, it does not operate in California or Texas.[2] A total of 4,087 employees work for Cincinnati. [3]
Business & Financial Metrics[4]
In 2009, CINF generated a net income of $432 million on $3.9 billion in total revenues. This represents a 0.70% increase in net income on a 2.6% dip in revenues from 2008, when the company earned $429 million on revenues of $3.14 billion.
The metric for profitability in the insurance industry is the combined loss, a ratio that reflects the percentage of each dollar sold of insurance policies that must actually be paid out as a claim or expense over the lives of the policies. A low combined ratio for a company indicates the insurance policies it has sold are profitable, because for every 1 dollar sold, a lower amount of money is paid out. For example, if the combined ratio is .6, this means that for every dollar of insurance sold, 60 cents are paid out and 40 cents are kept as earnings. A lower amount of money being paid out, the lower the combined ratio, indicates high earnings for the insurance company by definition. In 2009, CINF's combined ratio was 1.045.[4]
Business Segments
Commercial insurance (56.3% of Revenue, $2.20 billion)[5]: This segment is the largest revenue source for Cincinnati Financial. A weakening economic situation over the past few years, has led many national providers to compete with regional providers for commercial clients; the target for these products is small- to mid-size businesses. [6]
Personal insurance (17.6% of Revenue, $685 million)[7]: This segment accounts for the second largest revenue source. Personal insurance includes homeowners insurance and personal auto insurance.[8]
Life insurance (3.7% of Revenue, $143 million)[9]: This segment is the third largest revenue source. Despite the diversification of marketing channels for life insurance products (banks, supermarkets, direct sales, etc), Cincinnati Financial does not plan to alter its exclusive use of the agency channel. [10] Life insurance products offered by the company include term insurance policies that pay when the insured person dies, worksite products that employers offer their employees, and disability insurance that offsets lost income in the event of a disability.[11]
Trends and Forces
Premiums for CINF's Commerical Insurance Decline with Companies Cutting Back
Commercial premiums are based on a company's payroll or sales, and as companies cut back on the size of their business, the size of the premiums they pay will decrease. [12] This will reduce the profitability of P&C insurance providers, particularly companies such as CINF that heavily rely on selling insurance to businesses.
Lack of Geographic Diversification leads to High Volatility, Risk
Many of the insurance policies CINF originates are concentrated in a geographic area, which means the company has a less diversified portfolio of risk than its competitors. In 2009, 68.7% of CINF's insurance writing revenues come from only 10 states;[13] these are concentrated in the Midwest with a few in the Southeast.[14] Furthermore, Ohio and Illinois alone, account for 30.3% of net earned premiums.[15]
CINF's financial performance already indicates the volatility of catastrophe claims associated with a high geographic concentration. Catastrophic weather events in the Midwest (particularly Ohio) affect a regional insurer like CINF much more than its national competitors, because the competitors continue to profit from their policies written in unaffected regions.
Competition
Cincinnati Financial Corporation's self-defined direct competition consists of the following:
- Chubb (CB) is a U.S. property and casualty insurance that provides commercial and personal insurance.
- Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG)'s P&C segment is among of the top ten in the U.S., based on net premiums written. It offers business, personal, and specialty insurance.
- SAFECO (SAF)'s largest premium generating states are California, Washington, and Texas.
- Selective Insurance Group (SIGI) is a regional insurance company that provides P&C insurance coverage to 22 states in the Eastern and Midwestern regions.
- The Travelers Companies (TRV) has field offices in every state in the US as well as international operations. It provides a wide range of personal, business, and financial insurance products. Travelers is the 93rd largest company on the Fortune 500.
References
- ↑ CINF. Cincinnati Financial Reports Profitable 2008 Third Quarter.
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-K, Property Casualty Earned Premiums by State.
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-K, Property Casualty Earned Premiums by State.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 CINF 2009 10-K pg. 32
- ↑ CINF 2009 10-K pg. 12
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-k, Commercial Lines Property Casualty Insurance Segment , Pg 12.
- ↑ CINF 2009 10-K pg. 15
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-k, Segment Information.
- ↑ CINF 2009 10-K pg. 16
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-k, Commercial Lines Property Casualty Insurance Segment , Pg 14.
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-k, Segment Information.
- ↑ The Business Review. Property/Casualty insurance agencies staring at leaner times.
- ↑ CINF 2009 10-K pg. 4
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-K, Property Casualty Earned Premiums by State.
- ↑ CINF. Annual Report, 10-K, Property Casualty Earned Premiums by State.
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