How did Aflac, Global Payments and Synovus do in 2019? Here’s what you need to know.
Aflac, Global Payments and Synovus all reported their financial results for the fourth-quarter 2019 and full year 2019 in the past few weeks. How did the Columbus-affiliated companies fare after a busy year and quarter?
Here’s what you need to know.
Aflac
Aflac Incorporated, a Fortune 500 company and insurer based in Columbus, reported a Q4 profit of $782 million, up from net earnings of $525 million over the same period last year.
For all of 2019, Aflac reported a profit of roughly $3.3 billion, up from 2018’s net earnings of roughly $2.9 billion.
Some other key points include:
▪ Q4 2019 total revenues were up. Aflac reported roughly $5.6 billion in 2019 as opposed to roughly $5.1 billion over the same period in 2018.
▪ For all of 2019, Aflac’s total revenue rose. The company reported roughly $22.3 billion in 2019, compared with 2018’s total of roughly $21.8 billion.
▪ Total investments and cash as of Dec. 31, 2019, were roughly $138.1 billion, up from about $126.2 billion on Dec. 31, 2018.
In a statement, Aflac Chairman and CEO Daniel P. Amos said he was pleased with the company’s overall performance for the year.
“Total pretax adjusted earnings increased 2.5%, which is particularly impressive considering our extensive investments to drive future earned premium growth, which will remain a critical strategic focus for 2020,” he said.
The company’s earnings information has been released, but a copy of its more detailed and mandated annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission was not available Wednesday morning, according to online records.
In its previous earnings report from Q3 2019, Aflac mentioned Japan Post Holdings’ internal investigation into improper sales practices could cause issues moving forward. Japan Post and its sister companies sell Aflac’s cancer products in its post offices throughout Japan.
In December 2019, Japan Post announced it uncovered more than 12,836 cases of suspected illegal or improper insurance sales over a five-year period through March.
Of the 1.2 million Aflac policies sold by Japan Post from April 1, 2014, to August 1, 2019, Aflac Japan found a small number — around 7,000 — of lapsed and reissued policies were the same and “did not align with customer intent,” the company said. Those numbers were found during a voluntary review by Aflac in September.
Global Payments
Global Payments, a financial technology services company with dual headquarters in Atlanta and Columbus, reported a Q4 2019 profit of roughly $114 million up from a reported total net income of about $83.3 million over the same period in 2018.
For 2019, the company saw its profit decrease. In 2019, Global Payments reported a total net income of roughly $469.3 million, down from roughly $484.7 million in 2018.
Some other key points include:
▪ Global Payments saw its revenues increase in Q4 2019 to roughly $2 billion from roughly $881 million over the same period in 2018.
▪ For all of 2019, Global Payments reported revenues of roughly $4.91 billion, up from roughly $3.37 billion in 2018.
▪ Adjusted earnings per share grew 22% to $1.62, compared to $1.33 in the fourth quarter of 2018.
▪ For all of 2019, adjusted earnings per share grew 20% to $6.22, compared to $5.19 in 2018.
The company’s earnings information has been released, but a copy of its more detailed and mandated annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission was not available Wednesday morning, according to online records.
“We delivered one of the finest strategic, operational and financial years in our history in 2019. Our transformational merger with TSYS redefined our industry landscape, creating the worldwide leader in payments technology,” said CEO Jeff Sloan.
The company’s biggest news of the year came when the former Atlanta-based Global Payments merged with Columbus’ TSYS. The merger was finalized in September 2019.
In its previous Q3 2019 filing, the company told Securities and Exchange Commission that it planned to incur substantial costs related to the merger and that combining with TSYS may prove more difficult than anticipated which could include the loss of key employees.
Synovus
Synovus, the Columbus-based banking and financial services company, reported a Q4 profit of roughly $151.7 million, up from a reported net income of roughly $105.1 million over the same period in 2018.
For all of 2019, the company reported a profit of roughly $563.8 million, up from roughly $428.5 million in 2018.
Some other key points include:
▪ Total loans for Q4 were roughly $37.16 billion, up from $25.95 billion over the same period in 2018.
▪ Total deposits for Q4 were roughly $38.41 billion, up from $26.72 billion over the same period in 2018.
▪ Total revenues for Q4 were roughly $498 million, up from roughly $366 over the same period in 2018.
As of Dec. 31, 2019, Synovus reported total assets of roughly $48 billion, up from roughly 32 billion on Dec. 31, 2018.
The Board of Directors also approved a 10% increase in the Company’s quarterly common stock dividend from $0.30 to $0.33 per share, effective with the quarterly dividend payable in April 2020.
The company’s earnings information has been released, but a copy of its more detailed and mandated annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission was not available Wednesday morning, according to online records.
This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 3:52 PM.