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2 Highly Ranked Insurance Stocks That May Keep Soaring

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Insurance stocks continue to stand out among the financial sector with quite a few making their way onto the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) list.

To that point, many insurance industries are expected to benefit from rate cuts, which will likely reduce the borrowing costs for insurance companies. Furthermore, lower interest rates should increase consumer spending for insurance-related products.

Keeping this in mind, Axis Capital Holdings AXS and Mercury General ((MCY - Free Report) ) are two of these highly-ranked insurance stocks that investors shouldn’t overlook. 

AXS & MCY Stock Price Performance

Notably, Axis Capital and Mercury General’s Zacks Insurance-Property and Casualty Industry is in the top 8% of over 250 Zacks industries with their stellar growth and generous dividends keeping investors engaged.

As a global provider of specialty insurance and reinsurance solutions, Axis Capital’s stock has soared over +40% this year with Mercury General shares up nearly +70% as a writer for all risk classifications of automobile insurance in California among other states.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

AXS vs. MCY: EPS Growth & Valuation 

More intriguing is that Axis Capital’s stock still trades at just 7.4X forward earnings with annual earnings per share (EPS) expected to rise 9% in fiscal 2024 and projected to increase another 8% in FY25 to $11.64 per share. Notably, FY24 and FY25 EPS estimates are up over 5% in the last 60 days.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Despite a very sharp year to date rally, Mercury General’s stock trades at a 15.8X forward earnings multiple which is nicely beneath the S&P 500’s 24.3X and closer to the industry average of 13.6X.

Most daunting is that Mercury General’s EPS is now expected to skyrocket over 1000% this year to $4.00 versus earnings of $0.30 a share in 2023. Plus, FY25 EPS is projected to soar another 50% to $6.00.

Betters still, earnings estimate revisions for FY24 and FY25 have increased 16% and 54% in the last two months respectively.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

AXS & MCY Stocks: Generous Dividends

The cherry on top is that Axis Capital and Mercury General have annual dividend yields over 2% to impressively trump the industry average of 0.26% and the S&P 500’s 1.24%.

Zacks Investment Research
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

Bottom Line

At their current levels, the positive trend of earnings estimate revisions certainly alludes to more upside in these highly-ranked insurance stocks with now still being an ideal time to buy. 


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