Globe Life Trades Above 200-Day SMA: Time to Buy the Stock?

Globe Life Inc. GL has been trading above its 200-day simple moving average (SMA), signaling a short-term bullish trend. Its share price as of Wednesday was $138.80, down 9.1% from its 52-week high of $152.71.

The 200-day SMA is a long-term technical indicator that averages a stock's closing price over the last 200 trading days to smooth out volatility and identify the broader trend direction. When the stock price crosses above the 200-day SMA, it can be a signal to buy or hold.

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GL Shares are Affordable

Globe Life shares are trading at a discount compared to the industry. Its forward price-to-earnings multiple of 8.91X is lower than the industry average of 11.92X, the Finance sector’s 15.25X and the Zacks S&P 500 Composite’s 20.8X. Also, it has a Value Score of A.

Shares of other insurers like Unum Group UNM are also trading at a discount to the industry average, while AMERISAFE, Inc. AMSF and Aflac Incorporated AFL are trading at a multiple.

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GL’s Price Performance

Globe Life shares have gained 5.6% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 4.7%.

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GL’s Growth Projection Encourages

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Globe Life’s 2026 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 5.2%. The consensus estimate for 2025 revenues is pegged at $6.38 billion, implying a year-over-year improvement of 5.9%. The consensus estimate for 2027 earnings per share and revenues indicates an increase of 8.1% and 5.6%, respectively, from the corresponding 2026 estimates.
Earnings have grown 16.1% in the past five years, better than the industry average of 0.6%.

Target Price Reflects Potential Upside

Based on short-term price targets offered by 12 analysts, the Zacks average price target is $170.50 per share. The average indicates a potential 23.99% upside from the last closing price.

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GL’s Return on Capital

GL’s trailing 12-month return on equity is 21.3%, ahead of the industry average of 14.3%. Return on equity, a profitability measure, reflects how effectively a company is utilizing its shareholders’ equity.

Also, the return on invested capital (ROIC) in the trailing 12 months was 12.6%, better than the industry average of 6.8%. Its ROIC has been increasing over the last few quarters amid capital investment made over the same time frame. This reflects the company’s efficiency in utilizing funds to generate income.

Key Points to Note for Globe Life

Globe Life has been witnessing a positive trend in revenues, driven by premium growth in its Life Insurance and Health Insurance segments and net investment income.

The strong performance of the American Income and Liberty National divisions should drive the top line in the future. Liberty National is likely to continue to benefit from improved productivity and agent count. GL’s expansion initiatives to capture heavily populated and less penetrated areas should drive growth in the future.

Globe Life expects net life sales of high single-digit growth at American Income, low double-digit growth at Liberty National, and mid-single digit growth at direct-to-consumer in 2026. The company expects Net health sales of low double-digit growth for both Liberty National and Family Heritage in 2026. For United American, the company is currently projecting flat sales growth for 2026.

Moreover, net investment income continues to be another important driver of the company’s top-line growth and has been exhibiting improvement over the last few years. The metric is likely to keep growing, riding on improved invested assets and higher interest rates on new investments.

The company has maintained a strong liquidity position with sufficient cash-generation capabilities. Its operations comprise writing basic protection life and supplemental health insurance policies, which generate strong and stable cash flows. For 2026, Global Life targets a consolidated company action level RBC ratio in the range of 300% to 320%.

A strong capital position enables Globe Life to enhance its shareholder value via share buybacks and dividend payouts. The insurer has also increased its dividend at a 9.2% CAGR from 2017 to 2026. In February 2026, it hiked its dividend by 22.2%

End Notes

Globe Life’s higher life and health sales, improved invested assets, increased productivity and agent count, strong liquidity position and effective capital deployment make it an attractive stock.

Its solid growth projections as well as attractive valuations are other positives. Coupled with a higher average price target and favorable return on capital, the time appears right for potential investors to bet on this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) insurer. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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