(Bloomberg) -- The worst hurricane season in modern U.S. historyis starting to look like a blip on the charts of insurance stocks,with investors banking on a quick restoration of capital as firmsrediscover pricing power. It’s a fantasy, some analysts say.

Enthusiasm may not come to fruition

Property-and-casualty stocks took a quick dip after Harvey and Irmahit parts of the U.S. and the Caribbean islands, but quicklybounced back and resumed their ascent after storm fears abated.Bulls appear to be convinced the industry is being thrust intosomething known as a “hard market,” in which there’s a cyclicalincrease in premiums that allows firms to replenish reserves.

Related: Florida's Citizens cites $1.23 billion of insuredHurricane Irma losses

These hopes, which have been fueled by enthusiastic commentaryfrom industry executives, may not come to fruition, analystssay.

“These stocks will react to catastrophe losses the same way theyhave since the aftermath of 1992’s Hurricane Andrew,” DeutscheBank AG’s Joshua Shanker wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.“There will be pricing increases in narrow places. We do not expectbroad improvements in the P&C markets. Ultimately, we wouldexpect any hard market ‘euphoria’ that may currently exist todissipate.”

Prolonged recovery predicted

Investors may be “sorely disappointed” when reinsurers don’t seequick rebounds in book values as they did after past storms,Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Adams said.

“The ample supply of capital, slower pace of recovery andchanges in business mix will likely prolong the recovery inreinsurer book values,” he wrote Wednesday.

Below are excerpts from recent press releases and earnings-calltranscripts compiled by Bloomberg, where insurance executivespredicted how pricing will play out as the industry faces some ofthe biggest catastrophe losses in decades.

J. Patrick Gallagher Jr., CEO, Arthur J. Gallagher

“Australia and New Zealand are continuing to see rate increases,and it appears there could be some modest hardening on U.S.property lines.”

Related: New report details financial impact of September'shistorical natural disasters

Albert Benchimol, CEO, Axis Capital

“We do not expect a sudden and dramatic increase in prices acrossthe board as we observed in 2002. There may be some back and forthsas the market finds a new equilibrium. And while we wouldn’tpresume to project the full extent or length of any pricingcorrection, we disagree with the view that since pricing did notchange materially across the board after 2005, 2008 or 2011, thatit will not turn now.”

Christopher Henson, COO, BB&T

“You have to go through this window of short-term pain to reallyget pricing up over the long term. ... We have the opportunity nowthrough these storms for pricing to actually improve further.”

Related: Reinsurance market slows

J. Powell Brown, CEO, Brown & Brown

“There continues to be a lot of capital across the insurancemarketplace. However, the recent storms, fires and earthquakes mayhave implications on pricing in 2018. At the present time, we don’thave a clear view on the potential impact for next year, but thereare a lot of discussions about rate increases for coastalproperties. If there are proposed increases, which we think therewill be, the question really is, will they stick?”

Evan Greenberg, CEO, Chubb

“I believe we are at the beginning of a firming price environment,driven by years of soft pricing that has resulted in inadequaterates in many classes. The magnitude of this year’s CAT losses,which on a worldwide aggregate basis was between a one-in-five andone-in-10 year industry event, simply adds to the pressure toreturn to pricing that produces an adequate risk-adjustedreturn.”

Related: Chubb to face up to $1.3 billion in losses fromHarvey, Irma

Steven Johnston, CEO, Cincinnati Financial

“The Cincinnati Re team is well positioned to participate in whatwe believe will be a firming reinsurance market, considering themagnitude of losses faced by the insurance industry as awhole.”

Dan Glaser, CEO, Marsh & McLennan

“While there could be some movement in pricing incatastrophe-exposed areas in certain lines of coverage, the degreeand sustainability of any changes remains uncertain. From ourvantage point, too much is unknown about how losses will ultimatelydevelop, how capital will react or how client buying patterns willchange. ... Right now, it is just too early to tell.”

Craig Kliethermes, COO, RLI Corp.

“Whether the quarter’s events are enough to broadly impact rates oncatastrophe-exposed coverages is yet to be seen, but ourunderwriters will be testing the market and getting rate whereveravailable.”

Gregory Hendrick, President of Property & Casualty, XLGroup

“We believe that all lines will be impacted from a pricing andterms and conditions perspective. ... We are starting to see rateson short-tail lines increasing to double-digit range, with lossimpacted accounts seeing higher increases. ... While there is thenormal competing view amongst underwriters, brokers and clients onthe breadth and magnitude of the market change, we fully expectthere to be more favorable trading conditions in 2018.”

Related: 5 client takeaways from Hurricanes Harvey andIrma

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