These 4 Insurance Stocks Keep Hitting New Highs

While you were watching Tesla keep sliding to lower and lower yearly lows, you may have missed it that some big insurance companies kept going higher.

It’s not as exciting but if it’s making money in the stock market that interests you, then it might be worthwhile take a look at a sector that lacks the charm and wit of Elon Musk.

Chubb Limited (NYSE: CB) It’s a property and casualty insurer with headquarters in Switzerland. A component of the Standard & Poor’s 500, the company has a market capitalization of $90.30 billion. The price-earnings ratio is 15, less than the S&P 500’s p/e of 19.99 and much less than the Schiller p/e of 28.31.

Combined with other factors, that “lower than the market as a whole p/e” is a likely sign of value. Chubb trades at 1.92 times book, not all that cheap compared to others in the same sector — but definitely not terribly expensive.

Long-term debt is less than half shareholder equity, a positive metric for the MBAs who examine such things. The company pays a dividend of 1.51%, not huge but a sign that investors are valued.

Here is the weekly price chart for Chubb:

Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE: HIG) is the Connecticut-based firm that’s been in business since 1900. It’s primarily a property and casualty insurer but also active in the group benefits area and in mutual funds. Market capitalization sits at $24 billion. The price earnings ratio of 13 puts it well below that of the p/e for the stock market as whole, a quick indication of value. This year’s earnings per share are up by 39.60% and the past 5-year earnings growth looks good as well with an increase of 33.60%. The company pays investors a 2.23% dividend.

RLIRLI
Corp, with headquarters in Peoria, Illinois, is a smaller property and casualty insurance company with a market capitalization of $5.9 billion. The company trades with a price-earnings ratio of 10.52 and at 4 times book value. Long-term debt is far less than shareholder equity for RLI. This year the earnings are up by 76.50%. The record for the past 5-years is 18.80%. The stock is relatively lightly traded for a New York Stock Exchange listing with just an average daily volume of 197,000 shares.

The Travelers
TRV
Cos. (NYSE: TRV) is in the property and casualty insurance business where they’ve been for 165 years. Market capitalization is $43.86 billion. The Hartford, Connecticut-based company trades with a price-earnings ratio of 13.84 and at 2.24 times its book value. Earnings this year increased by 37.80% — the past 5 years earnings are up by 7.10%. The Travelers is actively traded with an average daily volume of 1.34 million shares. The firm pays a 1.96% dividend.

Not investment advice. For educational purposes only.