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Navigators Group Stock Soars 43% Year to Date: Here's Why

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That The Navigators Group, Inc. stock is favored by investors is clearly affirmed by its share price movement. Shares of the company have surged 43.1% year to date, outperforming its industry's rally of roughly 7.6%.



What’s Behind the Price Surge?

The property and casualty (P&C) insurer has been exhibiting solid premium growth over a considerable period of time, mainly driven by a better-than-expected performance across its segments. We expect this growth trajectory to continue in the upcoming quarters on the back of a strong segmental performance as well as solid renewal retention and an anticipated new business.

Additionally, the company has been able to display favorable underwriting results in the past few years, primarily owing to the impact of increase in net earned premiums across all the reporting segments. Banking on such strengths, we anticipate the momentum to sustain going forward.

In fact, combined ratio — reflecting the company’s underwriting profitability — has also been improving over the past few quarters and is expected to be consistent in the near term as well.

Benefiting from the rising interest rates, the company has been experiencing better investment results over the past few years and the same is likely to improve, courtesy of growth in invested assets from operating cash flows as well as higher yields in fixed maturities portfolio.

Riding on the strength of continued premium increase and better investment results, the company has been exhibiting top-line growth over a considerable period of time and we expect this upside to further accelerate the company’s overall progress.

Further, Navigators Group pursues strategic acquisitions, which in turn, solidify its core business as well as help it expand globally, which will further enable the P&C insurer to boost its long-term growth.

The company has been able to experience a substantial increase in its total investment and cash portfolio, reflecting a sturdy balance sheet while witnessing the increase in its book value.

Other Noteworthy Factors

Navigators Group sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). With optimism surrounding the stock’s healthy performance, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 and 2019 earnings has been revised about 14.3% and 7.7% upward, respectively, over the past 60 days.

The consensus mark for current-year earnings per share is pegged at $3.43, representing a huge year-over-year leap of nearly 195.7%.

Also, the company delivered a positive earnings surprise in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 19.54%.   

Other Stocks to Consider

Investors interested in other top-ranked stocks from the insurance industry can also consider Alleghany Corporation , RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (RNR - Free Report) and The Progressive Corporation (PGR - Free Report) , each sporting a Zacks Rank of 1.You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Alleghany provides property and casualty reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company delivered positive surprises in three of the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 17.61%.

RenaissanceRe Holdings provides reinsurance and insurance coverages in the United States and globally. The company pulled off positive surprises in three of the previous four quarters with an average positive surprise of 31.16%.

Progressive Corporation provides personal and commercial auto insurance, residential property insurance and other specialty property-casualty insurance plus related services, primarily in the United States. The company came up with positive surprises in all the preceding four quarters with an average earnings surprise of 9.19%.

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