The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price has moved sideways over the past year. No doubt, COVID-19 has thrown some serious challenges to the insurance giant, impacted by significant one-off corporate expenses.
However, management remains focused on correcting these issues and delivering bottom-line growth.
At Tuesday's market close, IAG shares finished the day up 1.31% trading at $5.42.
How is the IAG share price tracking in 2021?
In 2021, IAG has posted share price gains of 15%. This comes off the back of its strong surge in August, rising 10% in the past month alone.
Investors were clearly buying the company's shares ahead of its full-year results, expecting good things to come out of IAG.
IAG chief executive Nick Hawkins commented:
Our fiscal 2021 business performance is sound and reflects the strength of our core insurance business and its market leading brands.
Our Australian and New Zealand direct businesses have generated solid growth, and we've enhanced our focus on our intermediated business in Australia to resolve the challenges we've seen with some of its portfolios, and to drive greater profitability.
Since then, its share price has levelled around $5.40 after August's steep rise.
Only time will tell if IAG shares can regain pre-pandemic highs of around the $8 mark.
What if you had invested $1,000 into IAG shares 10 years ago?
If you had invested $1,000 in IAG shares in 2011, you would have bought them for around $3.02 apiece. The purchase would deliver approximately 331 shares without reinvesting the dividends.
Fast-forward to today, the IAG share price last closed at $5.42. This means that those 331 shares would be worth $1,794.02 (331 shares x $5.42).
When looking at percentage terms, this is a 79.4% increase or an average yearly return of 6.02%. In comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has returned the exact same amount over the 10-year period (6.02%).
While it may appear that either investment would deliver the same returns, IAG has paid dividends to its shareholders.
Are IAG shares a buy?
A number of brokers have rated the company with comparable price points since the release of its full-year results on 11 August.
Citi raised its 12-month price target by 2.7% to $5.75 for IAG shares. Following suit, Morgans changed its rating, adding 5.2% to $5.65. And lastly, JPMorgan lifted its outlook by 5.9% to $5.35.
IAG presides a market capitalisation of roughly $13.3 billion, with more than 2.4 billion shares on its books.
