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Text: Joining the call today are Gary Coleman and Larry Hutchison, our co-chief executive officers; Frank Svoboda, our chief financial officer; and Brian Mitchell, our general counsel.
Some of our comments may also contain non-GAAP measures.
In the fourth quarter, net income was $187 million or $1.69 per share, compared to $165 million or $1.45 per share a year ago.
Net operating income for the quarter was $188 million or $1.70 per share, a per share increase of 9% from a year ago.
On a GAAP reported basis, return on equity for the year was 11.6%, and book value per share was $66.02.
Excluding unrealized gains and losses on fixed maturities, return on equity was 14.5%, and book value per share grew 9% to $48.26.
In our life insurance operations, premium revenue increased 5% to $631 million, and life underwriting margin was $177 million, up 6% from a year ago.
In 2020, we expect life underwriting income to grow around 4% to 5%.
On the health side, premium revenue grew 7% to $275 million, and health underwriting margin was up 5% to $61 million.
Growth in premium exceeded underwriting margin growth, primarily due to lower margins at Liberty National.
In 2020, we expect health underwriting income to grow around 4% to 6%.
Administrative expenses were $61 million for the quarter, up 7% from a year ago.
As a percentage of premium, administrative expenses were 6.7%, the same as a year ago.
For the full year, administrative expenses were $240 million or 6.7% of premium, compared to 6.5% in 2018.
In 2020, we expect administrative expenses to grow approximately 6%, and to be around 6.7% of premium.
I want to go through the fourth-quarter results at each of our distribution channels.
I'll start out by saying I'm pleased with the sales growth in our agencies in 2019.
I'm particularly pleased with the agent count growth and middle management increase we have seen across all of our exclusive agencies in 2019.
At American income, life premiums were up 8% to $297 million.
And life underwriting margin was up 9% to $98 million.
Net life sales were $59 million, up 9%.
The average producing count for the fourth quarter was 7,631, up 10% from the year-ago quarter and up 1% from the third quarter.
The producing agent count at the end of the fourth quarter was 7,551.
Net life sales for the full-year 2019 grew 6%.
The sales increase was driven by increases in agent count.
At Liberty National, life premiums were up 3% to $72 million, and underwriting margin was up 4% to $18 million.
Net life sales increased 13% to $15 million, and net health sales were $7 million, up 12% from the year-ago quarter.
The average producing agent count for the fourth quarter was 2,534, up 17% from the year-ago quarter and up 6% from the third quarter.
The producing agent count at Liberty National ended the quarter at 2,660.
Net life sales for the full-year 2019 grew 9%.
Net health sales for the full-year 2019 grew 11%.
The sales increase was driven by increases in agent count.
To better describe our nonagency business at Globe Life management insurance company, we have begun replacing the term direct response to direct-to-consumer.
And our direct-to-consumer division at Globe Life, life premiums are up 4% to $209 million, and life underwriting margin was flat at $39 million.
Net life sales were $30 million, up 2% from the year-ago quarter.
For the full-year 2019, net life sales were flat, due primarily to a decrease in juvenile mailing volume resulting from a decline in the response rates from our juvenile mailing offers.
At Family Heritage, health premiums increased 8% to $76 million, and health underwriting margin increased 7% to $19 million.
Net health sales were up 19% to $18 million due to an increase in both agent productivity and agent count.
The average producing agent count for the fourth quarter was 1,228 up 9% from the year-ago quarter and up 8% from the third quarter.
The producing agent count at the end of the quarter was 1,286.
Net health sales for the full-year 2019 grew 9%.
The sales increase was primarily driven by an increase in agent count.
At United American General Agency, health premiums increased 11% to $108 million, while margins increased 12% to $15 million.
Net health sales were $32 million, up 7% compared to the year-ago quarter.
To complete my discussion of margin operations, I will now provide some projections.
We expect the producing agent count for each agency at the end of 2020 to be in the following ranges: American Income, 5% to 7% growth; Liberty National, 5% to 13% growth; Family Heritage, 2% to 7% growth.
Net life sales for the full-year 2020 are expected to be as follows: American Income, 5% to 9% growth; Liberty National, 8% to 12% growth; direct-to-consumer, down 2% to up 2%.
Net health sales for the full-year 2020 are expected to be as follows: Liberty National, 9% to 13%; Family Heritage, 8% to 12%; United American individual Medicare Supplement, relatively flat.
I want to spend a few minutes discussing our investment operations.
First, excess investment income.
Excess investment income, which we define as net investment income less required interest on net policy obligations and debt was $63 million, a 1% increase over the year-ago quarter.
On a per share basis, reflecting the impact of our share repurchase program, excess investment income increased 6%.
For the year, excess investment income grew 5%, while on a per share basis, it grew 8%.
In 2020, due to the impact of lower interest rates, we expect excess investment income to decline by 2% to 3%, but on a per share basis, be flat to up 1%.
Now regarding the investment portfolio, invested assets are $17.3 billion, including $16.4 billion of fixed maturities and amortized cost.
Now the fixed maturities $15.7 billion are investment-grade with an average rating of A-, and below investment-grade bonds were $674 million, compared to $666 million a year ago.
The percentage of below investment-grade bonds to fixed maturities is 4.1%, compared to 4.2% a year ago.
Overall, the total portfolio is rated A- compared to BBB+ a year ago.
Bonds rated BBB are 55% of the fixed maturity portfolio, down from 58% at the end of 2018.
While this ratio is in line with the overall bond market, it is high relative to our peers.
However, we have less exposure than our peers to higher risk assets such as derivatives, equities, commercial mortgages and asset-backed securities.
We believe that the BBB securities that we acquire, provide the best risk-adjusted, capital adjusted returns due in large part to our unique ability to hold securities to maturity regardless of fluctuations in interest rates or equity markets.
Finally, we had net unrealized gains in the fixed maturity portfolio of $2.5 billion, $97 million lower than the previous quarter.
Now as to investment yield.
In the fourth quarter, we invested $449 million in investment-grade fixed maturities, primarily in the municipal, industrial and financial sectors.
We invested at an average yield of 4.11%, an average rating of A+ and an average life of 31 years.
For the entire portfolio, the fourth-quarter yield was 5.41%, down 15 basis points from the yield of fourth-quarter 2018.
As of December 31, the portfolio yield was approximately 5.41%.
For 2020, at the midpoint of our guidance, we assumed an average new money yield of 4.10% for the full year.
While we would like to see higher interest rates going forward.
Global Life can thrive in a lower for longer interest rate environment.
The extended low interest rates will not impact the GAAP or statutory balance sheets under the current accounting rules, since we sell noninterest-sensitive protection products.
While our net investment income, and to a lesser extent, our pension expense will be impacted in the continuing low interest rate environment, our excess investment income will still grow, it just won't grow at the same rate as the investors' assets.
Fortunately, the impact of lower new money rates on our investment income is somewhat limited as we expect to have an average turnover of less than 2% per year in our investment portfolio over the next five years.
First, I want to spend a few minutes discussing our share repurchases and capital position.
The parent began the year with liquid assets of $41 million.
In addition to these liquid assets, the parent generated excess cash flow in 2019 of $374 million, as compared to $349 million in 2018.
The parent company's excess cash flow, as we define it, results primarily from the dividends received by the parent from its subsidiaries, less the interest paid on debt and the dividends paid to Globe Life shareholders.
Thus, including the assets on hand at the beginning of the year, we had $415 million available to the parent during the year.
As discussed on our prior calls, we accelerated the repurchase of $25 million of Globe Life shares into December of 2018, with commercial paper and parent cash.
We utilized $20 million of the 2019 excess cash flow to reduce the commercial paper for those repurchases, that left $395 million available for other uses, including the $50 million of liquid assets we normally retain as a parent.
In the fourth quarter, we spent $93 million to buy 930,000 Globe Life shares at an average price of $99.82.
For the full-year 2019, we spent $350 million of parent company cash to acquire 3.9 million shares at an average price of $89.04.
So far in 2020, we have spent $33.5 million to buy 322,000 shares at an average price of $104.20.
The parent ended the year with liquid assets of approximately $45 million.
In addition to these liquid assets, the parent will generate excess cash flow in 2020.
While our 2019 statutory earnings have not yet been finalized, we expect excess cash flow in 2020 to be in the range of $375 million to $395 million.
Thus, including the assets on hand at January 1, we currently expect to have around $420 million to $440 million of cash and liquid assets available to the parent in 2020.
As noted on previous calls, we will use our cash as efficiently as possible.
It should be noted that the cash received by the parent company from our insurance operations is after they have made substantial investments during the year to issue new insurance policies, expand our information technology and other operational capabilities and acquire new long-duration assets to fund future cash needs.
With the parent company excess cash flows, if market conditions are favorable and absent alternatives with higher value to our shareholders, we expect that share repurchases will continue to be a primary use of those funds.
We believe a yield to return that is better than other available alternatives and provides a return that exceeds our cost of equity.
Now regarding capital levels at our insurance subsidiaries.
Our goal is to maintain capital at levels necessary to support our current rating.
As noted on previous calls, Globe Life has targeted a consolidated company-action-level RBC ratio in the range of 300% to 320% for 2019.
Although we have not finalized our 2019 statutory financial statements, we anticipate that our consolidated RBC ratio for 2019 will be toward the higher end of this range.
For 2020, we will continue to target a consolidated company-action-level RBC ratio in the range of 300% to 320%.
Finally, with respect to our earnings guidance.
As Gary previously noted, net operating income per share for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $1.70.
In addition, net operating income per share for the full-year 2019 was $6.75.
This was $0.01 above the midpoint of our previous guidance.
Primarily due to greater-than-anticipated life underwriting income at Liberty National and higher excess investment income.
For 2020, we are projecting that net operating income per share will be in the range of $7.03 to $7.23.
The $7.13 midpoint of this guidance is slightly lower than previous guidance due to higher-than-expected employee pension and healthcare costs in 2020.
Those are my comments.
Those are our comments.

user
compname reports q4 earnings per share $1.69.
q4 operating earnings per share $1.70.
sees fy 2020 operating earnings per share $7.03 to $7.23.
q4 earnings per share $1.69.
sees net operating income per share will be in range of $7.03 to $7.23 for year ending dec 31, 2020.

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