Prudential price target raised to $100 from $95 at Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo raised the firm’s price target on Prudential to $100 from $95 and keeps an Underweight rating on the shares following quarterly results. Prudential’s baseline guidance for Q1 EPS is that Q1 should see about 14c of one-time items, including $30M of weaker underwriting in Individual Life and $40M of higher expenses, the firm says. Prudential reduced the Group benefit ratio to 83%-87% from 85-89% and just over 83% in 2023 given strong results in both group life and disability, which should be a tailwind, Wells argues, adding that the company also provided an outlook with higher Q1 earnings than was expected by the Street.