QBE share price in focus
QBE began as a marine insurance company in Townsville in the late 1800s and has grown into one of Australia’s largest insurers.
Today, the group operates in 27 countries, offering a broad range of insurance products across the commercial, consumer, reinsurance, and agriculture sectors.
Although QBE has Australian origins, only about 30% of its revenue is now generated domestically, with another 30% coming from the United States and the remainder primarily from Europe.
MQG shares
Macquarie Group is a multinational investment bank and financial services company that was founded in 1969.
Macquarie’s operations are a bit different to the rest of the big Australian banks. While it does have a normal banking division, it is also an asset management company with investment operations spanning infrastructure, commodities, agriculture, real estate, and global equity markets.
Macquarie prides itself on delivering consistent value to shareholders, with a more than 55-year record of unbroken profitability.
QBE share price valuation
We would consider QBE to be a ‘mature’ or ‘blue-chip’ business, so some of the metrics that could be worth considering include the debt/equity ratio, average yield, and return on equity, or ROE. These measures give us a sense of the company’s debt levels, their ability to generate returns from their assets, and their ability to consistently return profits to shareholders.
For CY23, QBE Insurance Group Ltd reported a debt/equity ratio of 31.0%, meaning the company has more equity than debt.
Over the last 5 years, QBE has delivered an average dividend yield of 2.7% per year. This is important to note if you’re looking for income from your investments.
Finally, in CY23, QBE reported an ROE of 14.5%. For a mature business you generally want to see an ROE of more than 10%, so QBE clears this hurdle.
In FY24, Macquarie Group Ltd reported a debt/equity ratio of 258.5%, meaning the company is leveraged.
As for dividends, since 2019 MQG has achieved an average dividend yield of 3.2% per year, and in FY24 reported an ROE of 10.4%
It’s important to keep in mind that these are only a small selection of metrics and don’t give us enough information to value the business or make an investment decision. To learn more about valuation, check out one of our free online investing courses.
