The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price has not had a great start to the trading week this Monday. At market close, IAG shares finished down 0.74% to $5.34 a share.
Zooming out a little, and the picture improves somewhat for IAG shareholders. Over 2021 so far, IAG shares are up 13.14%. That includes a 6.6% gain over just the past 3 months. In contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 'only' up around 12.27% year to date so far. As well as up 'just' 4.8% over the past 3 months. So IAG has been a market-beating investment across both the past 3 months and in 2021 so far.
The more attuned ASX investors out there might point to IAG's recent earnings report as a potential catalyst. IAG's 2021 financial year (FY21) earnings were delivered earlier this month .
On 11 August, IAG reported that its cash earnings were up a substantial 170% to $747 million, with a 100% boost to its final dividend to 20 cents a share. However, those pleasing metrics had to be digested with IAG's $427 million net loss after tax.
Even though the company was bullish on its FY2022 prospects in this earnings report, with management stating "IAG's underlying performance will continue to improve," initially investors weren't entirely on board. As we reported at the time, the IAG share price dropped after the release of these earnings.
Saying that, IAG shares have risen around 1.33% between the day before these earnings were released and today. But they are certainly not enough to explain the company's performance over the past 3 months.
New executive gives IAG share price a boost
Another development seems to have supported IAG over this period though. Back on 20 July IAG announced that Tim Plant had been appointed as chief insurance and strategy officer, a newly created role. Plant is a former CEO of Zurich Insurance Group.
Here's what IAG managing director and CEO Nick Hawkins said of the appointment at the time:
Tim brings a considerable depth of underwriting and insurance experience, as well as a deep understanding of customer needs through his leadership roles in the Australian and New Zealand general insurance markets. Tim's experience will further bolster IAG's leadership and I look forward to welcoming Tim to the team.
Since this news became public, the IAG share price has rallied more than 10.5%. So it seems this move has been at least somewhat accretive to the IAG share price.
At the current IAG share price, the company has a market capitalisation of $13.26 billion and a dividend yield of 2.62%.
