** Australia's QBE Insurance QBE.AX on Friday reported consensus-beating FY24 profit on the back of higher investment returns and favourable catastrophe expenses
** Declared final dividend of 63 Australian cents apiece, ahead of last year and market consensus
** Shares surged as much as 8% on Friday to a near 15-year high but ended 3% in green at a three-week high of A$20.68
STRONG FUNDAMENTALS DRIVE UPGRADES
** Jefferies raises rating to "buy" from "hold", and PT to A$24.30 from A$21.00
** Says it will upgrade rating as stock trades below peers at 11.1 times future earnings, vs rivals IAG IAG.AX and Suncorp SUN.AX trading at 17.9 times and 14.8 times, respectively
** Jefferies hikes earnings view for QBE by 3% to 7% for FY25-27
** Citi lifts PT to A$23.30 from A$22.00, retains "buy" rating
** Forecasts a combined operating ratio $(COR)$ of 92.3% in FY25 vs FY24's 93.1%; expects more improvement if the insurer's crop segment COR normalises
** Says buybacks seem likely in time; "forecast QBE to perform slightly better than its FY25E guidance"
** 10 of 13 analysts rate QBE "buy" or higher, two "hold" and one "sell"; their median PT is A$22.40 – LSEG data
(Reporting by Sameer Manekar in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
((Sameer.Manekar@thomsonreuters.com;))
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