China Life Insurance stock rating prices target by zacks

China Life Insurance stock rating prices target by zacks, China Life Insurance stock rating 2013 : China Life Insurance (NYSE: LFC) was downgraded by Zacks from a �neutral� rating to an �underperform� rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday. They currently have a $46.00 price target on the stock.

Zacks� analyst wrote, �We are downgrading our recommendation on China Life to Underperform based on the constant decline in operating cash flow, which is affecting the financials. The gradual decline in premiums and increasing competition on the domestic front are the other downsides. The company also faces substantial interest rate and currency risks, which limit the upside. China Life also reported a net loss in the third quarter, due to a surge in operating expenses, which offset the operating income increases. However, total assets and shareholders� equity improved, although cash fund deteriorated. Meanwhile, the subordinated debt issue has improved the solvency ratio. The company has a strong brand name, an extensive domestic distribution channel, strong investments and stable ratings.�

Separately, analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded shares of China Life Insurance from a �neutral� rating to an �underperform� rating in a research note to investors on Wednesday.

Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, four have given an overweight rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, and one has given a sell rating to the company�s stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of �overweight� and an average price target of $48.66.

Shares of China Life Insurance traded up 0.24% during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $51.17. China Life Insurance has a one year low of $33.00 and a one year high of $52.72. The stock�s 50-day moving average is currently $47.73. The company has a market cap of $94.110 billion and a P/E ratio of 66.73.

China Life Insurance Company Limited is an insurance company. The Company provides a range of insurance products, including individual life insurance, group life insurance, accident insurance and health insurance products. Source www.zacks.com

Assured Guaranty insurance financial strength rating by Moody

Assured Guaranty  insurance financial strength rating by Moody, Assured insurance rating 2013 : Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO), the bond insurer whose biggest investor is Wilbur Ross, had its municipal bond unit downgraded by Moody�s Investors Service, which cited the industry�s �dramatic decline� since the subprime crisis.

Moody�s lowered the insurance financial strength rating of Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp. two levels to A2 from Aa3, Assured Guaranty Corp. three levels to A3 from Aa3, and Assured Guaranty Re Ltd. three levels to Baa1 from A1, the debt-rating company said in a statement today.

�Assured operates in an industry that has not recovered from the financial crisis,� Moody�s said. The Bermuda-based firm �will continue to struggle in the face of declining fundamentals, including a dramatic reduction in insurance usage, modest profitability and still-meaningful legacy risk.�

Assured was the only company left insuring municipal bonds after MBIA Inc. (MBI) and Ambac Assurance Corp. had their credit ratings slashed during the crisis amid losses on guarantees of subprime-mortgage-backed debt. Since then, U.S. municipalities have grown used to borrowing without the insurance that once kept their interest rates low, before the MBIA and Ambac downgrades sent floating rates soaring in 2007 and 2008.

While Assured avoided the losses that felled its rivals, its stock plunged 90 percent from June 2007 to March 2009. Ross bought $250 million worth of shares in February 2008 and committed $750 million in capital to the firm. The billionaire�s WL Ross & Co. now owns a 10.2 percent stake. Though the shares recovered later in 2009, they are little changed from their value in June of that year.

In 2011, 5.2 percent of the $290 billion of municipal debt sold in the U.S. was insured, all by Assured, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The protection once covered half the bonds offered by U.S. states and local governments.

Moody�s put the units of Assured Guaranty under review on March 20. Profitability over five and 10 years has �weakened notably,� lagging that of other specialty insurers, and will remain under pressure from low sales, Moody�s said today.

While Assured has modest debt, it may have �constrained� ability to access funds �on a cost-effective basis� if needed, said the Moody�s analysts, led by James Eck and Stanislas Rouyer.

Chubb Shares forecast 2013

best insurance stock - Chubb Shares forecast 2013, Chubb insurance plans 2013, Chubb's underwriting income :  Shares of Chubb closed at $77.97 Monday, trading for 12.5 times the consensus 2013 earnings per share estimate of $6.25. The consensus 2014 earnings per share estimate is $6.64. The shares returned 11 percent during 2012. Based on a quarterly payout of 41 cents, the shares have a dividend yield of 1.64 percent.

Chubb plans to announce its fourth-quarter results on Jan. 31, after the market close. The company on Dec. 11 announced that it had estimated that its losses from Hurricane Sandy would be $880 million, or $570 million after taxes. The losses are expected to lower the company's earnings by $2.14 a share.

When announcing the loss estimate, Chubb said it was suspending its share buyback program, but that it expected repurchases to resume, although it no longer expected "to complete repurchases under its current $1.2 billion authorization by the end of January 2013 as previously contemplated." The company also expects to announce an additional buyback program after it announces its fourth-quarter results.

For the first three quarters of 2012, Chubb's underwriting income totaled $880 million. During 2011, underwriting income totaled $574 million.

The consensus estimate for the fourth quarter is for the company to report a net loss of 45 cents a share, compared to earnings per share of $1.98 in the third quarter and $1.63 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Online leads business: Is it a good choice for making money?

There have always been a number of ways to make money. Some have been the routine office jobs while some have been unconventional. And now, with the advent and blossoming of internet, new money-making opportunities are taking shape. A lot of people are simply sitting back at home and earning good bucks through net-based activities. Starting a lead generation business for your clients or for your own products is another lucrative option which is becoming popular very fast. It has its initial hurdles like all other business models but one can go on to make a lot of money out of this.

 In the online leads business, one has to be always up on his toes. Marketing is the key tool in this venture and it is vital that you keep coming out with innovative strategies to expand your network. Generating leads can be challenging since the online world can give you a headache-causing competition. But once you have studied the market carefully and are ready to try out new things, then you can carve out a safe and handsome income every month. The great thing is that once you cement your position in this venture, your profits will go on increasing. 

Dealer leads business survives on marketing including e-mail marketing. But these days, people are also going for other newer forms like texting. The basic requirement is a website, which can be set up using WordPress. In fact, it is the most recommended format for its convenience and simplicity. Setting up a website is not difficult and does not require any major investment. Thus, online leads venture suits very well even to cash-strapped persons. It is also advisable that you make your website automated. This is very essential if you want to work on your own instead of relying on manpower which would increase your costs unnecessarily. You can take assistance of a techie to set up such a home page and design it as per your customized requirement.

While carrying out the task of managing dealer leads, you have to weigh several things at once. It is important that you market yourself in an effective manner and to keep yourself visible to the potential buyer. But in case you are too nosey, then it may besmirch your web reputation. So, the leads which you generate must be managed prudently. You must take note of the fact that conversion rate is highest for those companies which do a thorough research on the psyche of the buyers and market accordingly. If you spam their mail box with dozens of emails on a weekly basis, then you may lose more than you win.

Another reason why generating online leads is so lucrative is that it doesn�t take much time. Since, a single email can be sent to multiple recipients at the same time, you can pull off this business even with the minimum of efforts and time. In case, you are not confident of the viability of this project, then you can carry on with your office job and do it as a part-time thing.

Online lead generation: How to get good auto loan leads?

If you are in the business of offering car loans, then you will always have to generate leads so that there are plenty of potential clients at hand. It is true that some of the leads will come out as bad and wouldn�t convert no matter how hard you try. But on the other side, you need to make sure that you are able to make the good leads fully convert into real purchasers. A lot of time and effort are spent to generate and manage them. So, it is important that one targets quality over quantity.

For instance, if you have secured 100 auto loan leads but 90% of them are bad, then the number of conversions will only be around 10. On the other hand, if you can secure just 40 leads (with 30% being good), then you will still fetch higher conversion at 12. So, one can conclusively point out that quality should always take precedence over quantity. It is so because until and unless your online lead generationhas promise of conversion, you will only be wasting away your resources. 

One recommended way for high-quality online lead generation is to create attractive ads. It is vital that one must exercise caution and innovation while coming up such ads. If they are annoying, then they won�t be of any help to you. But if you can put in some sort of benefit or incentive, then the surfers are more likely to click on them and further read as to what you have got to say. So, it is also important that you select your advertisement associate after checking his credentials.

Apart from tapping the market through web-ads, you should also try to target the local people. It is best to form association with local dealers who usually have great knowledge about the potential buyers. A dealer selling cars will surely register countless visitors on his website. Most of them are likely to buy an automobile if they can have the financial means. That is to say most of them are also on the look-out for car loans. So, if the dealer himself can place your home page�s link on his site, then you stand a great chance of generating a significant amount of �good� quality auto loan leads. Most of these people would be serious clients who will definitely borrow funds from you if you can impress them with your offers. 

On the alternative, if you do not wish to enter into any formal relationship with any dealer, then you can simply request them to give you vital info (the name and contact numbers) of their clients. In exchange, the dealer will take some money or commission. It is a very cheap option of getting high-quality auto loan leads. In fact, this method is superior to several other marketing strategies including email marketing (wherein such emails are simply trashed or sent in spam folders). 

Using these and many more innovative tactics, online lead generation has become very easy, as long as the person has the passion & will.

New car leads: 5 ways for generating auto insurance leads

When someone is in the business of lending or insurance, then it is vital to generate leads. Without such a method, it would be difficult to survive in this cut-throat industry. For instance, if you are someone who sells car loans or who provides insurance policy to automobile owners, then it will be imperative that you keep an eye out for car owners and potential automobile buyers. There are various ways to figure out such numbers. Some methods are more expensive than the others. But every business should keeps its options open and exercise its decisions depending on the existing situation and market condition.

Here are 5 popular ways for generating new car leadsand auto insurance leads:

i.                    Online ads: Everyone from a pre-teen kid to a 70-year old, all is hooked to the net. They surf a lot and frequent a number of websites. Thus, placing your online ads on different sites is an interesting way of capturing the market. It is not as direct as email or telephone-based marketing, but it does help to keep your company visible. It is however vital to set up your ads in an innovative manner so that you can register higher clicks. 

ii.                  E-mail campaigns: E-mail campaign is becoming more of a convention and may sound clich�, but it is still the most popular method to generate new car leads because of its cheapness. Sending an e-mail does not cost a penny, and even if some recipients delete it without even reading, this method continues to dominate the advertising world. In order to get better returns and to prevent spamming, it will be advisable that you do a thorough research of the market, get your auto insurance leads and send e-mails only to those who are actually planning to buy a car.

iii.                Social marketing: In today�s age, you cannot ignore social marketing. Social websites like Facebook and Twitter are extremely popular amongst all age groups and they also give businessmen a useful tool to market themselves. By setting up pages & profiles or joining similar groups, you can create a brand for yourself and increase your web visibility. However, refrain from spamming the newsfeed of your page�s followers as that usually propels them to unlike the page or change their settings. It is important that you set up an interactive way to communicate with the audience. 

iv.                Spread the word on forum and discussion panels: Internet is flooded with a number of forums and discussion panels. Since, the topic is pre-decided at these venues, usually only like-minded people with a common interest are members to it. Thus, you can spread word about your company in an automobile forum and create a lot of new car leads. 

v.                  Telephone and text marketing: The telephonic form of marketing has been in existence even before the dawn of internet. But recently attention has been shifted from direct phone to texts. The latter is more convenient to the client because it doesn�t disturb them as much as a call does. Commercial enterprises looking for auto insurance leads usually send bulk texts to potential customers.

Health insurance leads: 4 things to remember while hiring a lead provider

Internet world may look inviting and alluring to businessmen but it comes with its own set of challenges. It is true that it is very easy to set up an online business. But because of such a convenience, the web world has also fetched up a gigantic proportion of competition. Creating a company is easy, but it is hard to sustain it over a long run. You have to look for newer leads and to keep generating them. Since lead generation has become vital to the survival of an online entrepreneur, it is a common phenomenon to take help of various professionals who offer customized expert services.

One such professional goes by the name of lead provider. These lead providers help a great deal in not only figuring out new leads but also in getting the good ones. Insurance companies are in the highest need of lead generation service, since this industry is fully dependent on the number of policies sold. There are various forms of marketing (like email marketing or telephone marketing) which you can yourself deploy without any professional help. But more often than not, you will end up emailing or calling a bad lead i.e. someone who is not at all in need of your policy. On the other hand, a lead provider carries out research (through polls and surveys) to prepare a list of candidates who are most likely to buy an insurance policy. 

Thus, these professionals give you a greater chance of converting your health insurance leads. Here are 4 things you need to remember before you hire the services of these experts:

i.          Staff structure: It is vital that you take a look at the internal working structure of the lead providing agency. Skill is of essence in this business. Quality is more important than quantity. So, you must ensure that the health insurance leads you can derive have maximum potential for actual sales conversion.

ii.         Contact database: It will be preferable if the agency in question enjoys a strong clientele list with a powerful contact database. If it enjoys a superior relationship with its clients, then the chances of your conversion rate go up significantly. 

iii.        Range of services: An ideal lead provider is one who has various services related to the trade. This means that its staff is much more capable of looking after your individual requirements. Some agencies can come up with innovative services to provide a higher helping hand to their clients. On the other hand, a company with less range of service is likely to be inefficient.

iv.        Experience and rates: Experience is another factor which will help you decide on the best agency. Experienced lead providers may enjoy positive reviews and testimonials. They are more likely to bring you higher number of customers. On the other hand, you must also look at your own budget and check out the rates which are being offered by these professionals for giving you health insurance leads. After taking everything into consideration, it will be important to strike a balance between quality of service and cost.