Mapfre recently held its customary shareholder meeting, an event that the company organizes several times a year to present its quarterly results. As a transparency initiative the Group has been carrying out for eight years, this meeting focused investors’ attention on the business’s performance, stock progress, and the dividend.
“We continue to focus on technical excellence, achieving significant improvements in nearly all our businesses, markets, and units. The positive trends from previous quarters strengthened this quarter, as reflected by an impressive growth in results, reaching €829 million. We’ve even used this opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet,” explained Felipe Navarro, Corporate Director of Investor Relations, Capital Markets, and M&A at Mapfre.
At the event, attended in person by 82 guests, Navarro emphasized that these results demonstrate the success of our Strategic Plan 2024–2026, which focuses on improving efficiency and productivity, achieving profitable growth, managing the business sustainably, and advancing transformation and Mapfre’s corporate culture.
The widespread improvement in results has not gone unnoticed by the markets: so far this year, Mapfre has been one of the European insurance companies with the strongest stock market growth, growing 3.5 times more than the European benchmark index for the insurance industry and nearly twice as much as the IBEX 35.
“The stock price has performed spectacularly this year, gaining over 60% and trading within the range of €3.85 to €4.15 per share since the end of September. This brings our market capitalization close to €12.25 billion,” highlighted Leandra Elizabeth Clark, Director of Investor Relations and Capital Markets at Mapfre.
In fact, analysts covering this stock have increased both their profit estimates and their target price. “The major rating agencies recognize our financial strength and the solidity of our balance sheet,” Navarro added, noting that Fitch recently upgraded Mapfre’s issuer rating to ‘A,’ up from ‘A-‘ with a stable outlook. This reflects the company’s improved business performance and strong profit forecasts.
Similarly, Mapfre has once again been included in the MSCI indexes, thanks to the strong performance of its stock in recent months, which reached a new all-time high above €4. The company was excluded in 2020 amid widespread market declines caused by the pandemic.
Clark noted that returning to this index is significant, as it serves as a reference for many mutual funds and as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of most actively managed funds. She added that Mapfre’s return to MSCI “supports greater coverage by investors and analysts.”
These strong results have enabled the Group to increase its dividend, bringing the total payout this year to €0.165 per share and raising the total to €508 million. This marks the highest dividend in the company’s history, following four consecutive increases. “We’re distributing more and more in dividends, which proves our commitment to shareholders,” Navarro stated.