Lincoln National Corporation LNC recently announced a long-term strategic partnership with Bain Capital, under which the latter will invest $825 million to acquire a 9.9% equity stake in Lincoln. This all-cash deal values Lincoln's shares at $44 each, representing a 25% premium over its recent 30-day average. The insurer will sell 18.8 million of its shares. LNC shares jumped 14% yesterday.

Alongside the equity investment, the two firms have entered into a 10-year, non-exclusive investment management agreement. Hence, LNC can still work with others. Through this arrangement, Bain Capital, a private global investment firm,will manage a portion of Lincoln's assets across a range of classes, including private credit, structured assets, mortgage loans and private equity.

The partnership is designed to support Lincoln’s strategic goals by providing both capital and access to high-quality private assets with strong risk-adjusted returns. This is likely to boost LNC’s existing multi-manager platform. Lincoln intends to use the funds to expand its spread-based earnings, enhance its asset management capabilities, optimize its legacy life insurance portfolio and accelerate its efforts to reduce financial leverage to a target of 25%.

LNC’s long-term debt amounted to $5.9 billion at 2024 end, up 2.8% year over year. Short-term debt totaled $300 million. The company’s long-term debt to capital of 41.5% is significantly higher than the industry’s average of 14.3%.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025. It is expected to give LNC a cash boost, access to Bain Capital’s expertise and more power to improve its long-term profitability.

LNC’s Price Performance

Lincoln National shares have gained 12.6% in the past year compared with the 9.4% growth in the industry it belongs to.

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Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Lincoln National currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Finance space are Brown & Brown, Inc. BRO, Jackson Financial Inc. JXN and MGIC Investment Corporation MTG, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Brown & Brown’s current-year earnings is pegged at $4.19 per share, which indicates 9.1% year-over-year growth. It has witnessed two upward estimate revisions against none in the opposite direction during the past month. Brown & Brown beat earnings estimates in each of the past four quarters, with an average surprise of 8.2%.

The consensus mark for Jackson Financial’s current-year earnings indicates an 11% year-over-year increase. It beat earnings estimates in two of the past four quarters and missed twice, with an average surprise of 8.9%. Furthermore, the consensus estimate for Jackson Financial’s full-year revenues is pegged at $6.97 billion.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MGIC Investment’s current-year earnings is pegged at $2.74 per share, which witnessed one upward estimate revision in the past month against no movement in the opposite direction. It beat earnings estimates in all the past four quarters, with an average surprise of 14.6%. Also, the consensus mark for MGIC Investment’s 2025 revenues suggests 3% year-over-year growth.

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