The Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) share price is rangebound today and now trades flat at $4.52 apiece.
After posting its preliminary FY22 results and FY23 guidance last week, IAG shares took off and now trade at their highest mark since June.
The insurer booked a $347 net profit after tax (NPAT) and forecasted FY23 gross written premium in the range of 14–16%.
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Is the IAG share price a buy?
Analysts at UBS certainly don't think so. The broker rates IAG a sell and values the company at $4.10 per share.
Following IAG's preliminary results, the UBS team was unimpressed with the growth trends and noted profit margins are below consensus estimates.
It said that "[r]eserve levels have again proved insufficient as a further top-up was required," which poses a key downside looking ahead.
Meanwhile, analysts at Macquarie led by Andrew Buncombe reiterated the bank's outperform rating with a $5.40 price target.
In fact, Macquarie joined 7 other brokers in revising their price targets and/or recommendations on IAG following its preliminary earnings update, per Refinitiv Eikon data.
This contrasts against 2 brokers rating the IAG share price as a hold and sell respectively.
The consensus price target from this list is $4.98 per share, suggesting a small amount of mispricing versus market price.
It is yet to be seen if further upgrades/downgrades are to come through from brokers covering IAG.
In the past 12 months, the IAG share price has lost 9%, despite clipping a 6% gain this YTD.
