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Introduction & Market Context
Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) released its first quarter 2025 investor presentation on May 5, 2025, revealing mixed financial results across its diversified portfolio of businesses. The conglomerate, which maintains controlling stakes in subsidiaries spanning insurance, natural gas pipelines, hospitality, and packaging, reported lower overall earnings compared to the same period last year, despite strong performance in its energy infrastructure segment.
The presentation highlighted Loews’ continued focus on share repurchases and maintaining a strong balance sheet, consistent with its long-term capital allocation strategy. The company’s stock closed at $88.11 on May 2, 2025, representing a 2.09% increase on the day, though it was indicated lower in premarket trading following the earnings release.
As shown in the following overview of Loews Corporation and its key subsidiaries:
Quarterly Performance Highlights
Loews reported net income of $370 million ($1.74 per share) for Q1 2025, down from $457 million ($2.05 per share) in Q1 2024, representing a 19% decrease. Despite this decline, the company maintained a strong financial position with $3.5 billion in cash and investments at the parent company level, against $1.8 billion in debt.
Book value per share excluding accumulated other comprehensive income (AOCI) increased to $89.74 as of March 31, 2025, from $88.18 at the end of 2024. The company received substantial dividends from subsidiaries totaling $686 million during the quarter and continued its share repurchase program, buying back 5.1 million shares at an aggregate cost of $429 million since December 31, 2024.
The following slide summarizes the key financial highlights for the first quarter:
Breaking down performance by segment reveals divergent results across Loews’ portfolio. CNA Financial, the company’s largest subsidiary, saw its contribution to Loews’ net income decrease to $252 million from $310 million in Q1 2024. Boardwalk Pipelines showed strong improvement, with its contribution rising to $152 million from $121 million. Loews Hotels & Co reported no contribution to net income, down from $16 million in the prior-year period, while the Corporate segment posted a loss of $34 million compared to income of $10 million last year.
The segment breakdown is illustrated in the following chart:
Subsidiary Performance
CNA Financial (NYSE:CNA), Loews’ property and casualty insurance subsidiary (92% owned), reported core income of $281 million for Q1 2025, down from $355 million in Q1 2024. Net written premiums increased to $2.6 billion from $2.4 billion, reflecting continued growth in the business. However, the combined ratio deteriorated to 98.4% from 94.6%, and the underlying combined ratio increased to 92.1% from 91.0%, indicating higher claims costs relative to premiums.
Boardwalk Pipelines, which is wholly owned by Loews, delivered strong results with operating revenue of $619 million, up from $511 million in Q1 2024. Net income attributable to Loews increased to $152 million from $121 million, and EBITDA rose to $346 million from $307 million. The improved performance reflects higher transportation revenues and increased demand for natural gas transportation services.
The following slide provides an overview of Boardwalk Pipelines and its strategic positioning:
Loews Hotels & Co, also wholly owned, reported operating revenue of $211 million, up from $183 million in Q1 2024. However, pretax income declined significantly to $4 million from $28 million, resulting in no contribution to Loews’ net income compared to $16 million in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA remained relatively flat at $81 million versus $80 million. The hotel portfolio consists of 26 properties with over 18,000 rooms across the United States, as shown in the following map:
Altium Packaging (NYSE:PKG), in which Loews holds a 53% stake, was described as serving customer-oriented end markets with 66 rigid packaging production facilities and two recycled resin facilities. While specific quarterly figures weren’t provided, the presentation highlighted Altium’s focus on short- and mid-run volumes in recession-resistant consumer segments such as household chemicals, food/nutrition, and dairy products.
Capital Allocation Strategy
Loews continues to prioritize share repurchases as a key component of its capital allocation strategy, viewing its stock as trading at a discount to the sum of its parts. The presentation highlighted that Loews’ market capitalization of $18.5 billion is less than the combined value of its stake in publicly-traded CNA ($12.0 billion), its net cash position ($1.7 billion), and its private subsidiaries (implied value of $4.8 billion).
This valuation gap is illustrated in the following slide:
The company has maintained a consistent share repurchase program over many years, as shown in the historical data:
Loews’ strong and consistent cash flow from subsidiaries supports its capital allocation strategy. The company received $686 million in dividends from subsidiaries in Q1 2025 alone, continuing a trend of substantial dividend income that has grown over recent years.
The following chart illustrates the company’s dividend income trend:
Forward-Looking Statements
Looking ahead, Loews highlighted several growth initiatives across its subsidiaries. Boardwalk Pipelines presented an ambitious growth project pipeline with eight major projects scheduled to come online between Q1 2025 and Q2 2029, representing significant capacity additions to its natural gas transportation network.
The growth projects and their expected timelines are detailed in this map:
For CNA Financial, the strategic focus remains on maintaining excellent underwriting performance, as evidenced by its consistent underlying combined ratio over recent years. Loews Hotels & Co continues to expand its portfolio of luxury and group meeting hotels, with a focus on profitable growth over the long term.
Loews maintains a conservative financial approach with a staggered debt maturity profile extending to 2043, providing financial flexibility and stability. The company’s disciplined capital management and long-term investment horizon position it to continue creating shareholder value through market cycles, despite the quarterly fluctuations in subsidiary performance.
Full presentation:
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