Not All Insurance Stocks Were Turkeys

NU Stock Analyst

Thanksgiving for investors in insurance stocks was close to a balanced meal. It had satisfying events, but was marred chiefly by insurance stocks that again underperformed the general market.

The November portfolio contained 119 stocks. In total they moved up under 4 percent, with 74 advances and 45 declines–close enough to a win/lose ratio of 3/2. Five of the eight industry groups advanced and three ended down. However, not all were turkeys.

Among the nine multilines, there were three gains of over 20 percent, with the group ending up 8.1 percent. The winner was Almerica Financial Corp. with a 29.14 percent gain to $10.99. In second place was the Hartford with a 20.24 percent fast forward to $49.06. In third place came CIGNA, which closed the month at $43.53, up 20.45 percent.

The specialist group registered a 6.14 percent gain to become third-best for November. Navigators Group was bid up 23.71 percent to $25.98.

Property-casualty issues advanced 5.12 percent, with a number of conspicuous gainers. Vesta Insurance, an up-and-down stock in recent times, ended on an up that registered 79.40 percent. Vesta started at $1.99 and ended November at $5.57. FPIC, a medical malpractice marketer, surged and finished ahead 58.95 percent at $6.42.

21st Century Insurance Group, majority-controlled by AIG, jumped 20.17 percent to $14. EMC Insurance Group started at $15.60 and ended up 19.81 percent at $18.69. ACE Ltd., a stock with an institutional following, churned ahead 10.89 percent to $34.10.

Point of information: The Erie Indemnity Company is perhaps the least known and followed of the largest p-c insurers. A group headed by Goldman Sachs is readying a 4.6 million-share secondary offering. The stock is coming from the estate of one Sam Black, a long-time employee who passed on earlier this year at age 99.

The Erie is a quality company that can point to one of the highest policy renewal rates in the industry. That policyholders stay with the company is an overall recommendation in itself. (A point of disclosure: I do not own stock in the company.)

So let us sign off on the first 11 months of a very challenging year and look forward to a better year to come. In the meanwhile, let us try to enjoy the most reliable event in our specialty. That is our “Guaranteed Year-end Rally.”

Only once in my long career following insurance stocks has there not been a year-end rally! And that was, depending on memory, 1957, when stocks peaked around Thanksgiving and trended down into the new year.

So its Happy Holidays to you and may you enjoy a bountiful new year!

Thomas K. Meakin is affiliated with LIM Systems International in Voorhees, N.J. Stock results are supplied by The Firemark Group in Morristown, N.J.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, December 30, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

Special Reports /

Not All Insurance Stocks Were Turkeys

Related Stories

Recommended For You