Yahoo Finance Here's Why You Should Hold Travelers (TRV) in Your Portfolio
The Travelers Companies, Inc.’s TRV compelling portfolio, strong retention rates, positive renewal premium changes, solid returns from the non-fixed income portfolio and sufficient liquidity make the stock worth retaining in one’s portfolio.
Optimistic Growth Projections
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Travelers’ 2024 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 35.6% from the consensus estimate of 2023. The consensus estimate for revenues is pegged at $46.33 billion, implying a year-over-year improvement of 11.7% from the consensus mark of 2023.
The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 14.4% from the consensus estimate of 2024. The estimate for 2025 revenues is pinned at $50 billion, implying a year-over-year improvement of 7.9% from the consensus mark of 2024.
Estimate Revision
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2024 and 2025 earnings has moved 0.5% and 0.7% north, respectively, in the past 30 days. This should instill investors' confidence in the stock.
Zacks Rank & Price Performance
TRV currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the past year, the stock has gained 20% compared with the industry’s growth of 25.3%.
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Style Score
Travelers has a VGM Score of A. VGM Score helps identify stocks with the most attractive value, best growth and the most promising momentum.
Return on Capital
Travelers’ return on equity for the trailing 12 months is 13.9%, which compares favorably with the industry’s 7.3%, reflecting the company’s efficiency in utilizing shareholders’ funds. Also, the return on invested capital of 7.6% outperforms the industry average of 5.5%. This reflects TRV’s efficiency in utilizing funds to generate income.
Business Tailwinds
Premiums, the major component of an insurer’s top line, should continue to benefit from strong retention rates, positive renewal premium changes and higher new business premiums in both Domestic Automobile and Domestic Homeowners.
Given the progress and continued growth of the agency auto and homeowners business, TRV remains optimistic about the trajectory of its personal lines business.
Higher average levels of invested assets, improved results from the fixed-income portfolio and strong returns from the non-fixed-income portfolio should drive better net investment income.
In tandem with industry trends, the insurer continues to deploy funds in technology. Its balance sheet strength, driven by scale, profitability and cash flow, supports it in investing more than $1 billion annually in technology.
Being a property and casualty insurer, TRV is exposed to cat losses, which induce volatility in profits. Nevertheless, its active reinsurance programs limit losses.
Its long-term financial strategy delivers improved earnings by generating capital in excess of growth needs, maintaining a balanced approach to rightsizing capital and growing book value per share over time.
Notably, its free cash flow conversion has remained more than 100% over many years, reflecting its solid earnings.
TRV declared a 5% increase in quarterly cash dividend in the first quarter of 2024, which marked the 20th consecutive year of dividend increases with a compound annual growth rate of 8%. Its current dividend yield of 1.8% is better than the industry average of 0.3%. This makes TRV an attractive pick for yield-seeking investors.
It also has $5.79 billion of capacity remaining under its share repurchase authorizations.
Travelers has an impressive Growth Score of B. This style score helps analyze the growth prospects of a company.
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the property and casualty insurance industry are Arch Capital Group Ltd. ACGL, Palomar Holdings, Inc. PLMR and NMI Holdings Inc NMIH. While Arch Capital and Palomar Holdings sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) each, NMI Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Arch Capital has a solid track record of beating earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 28.41%. In the past year, ACGL has gained 28.9%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ACGL’s 2024 and 2025 earnings has moved 5.1% and 3.3% north, respectively, in the past 30 days.
Palomar has a solid track record of beating earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 15.10%. In the past year, PLMR has surged 75.3%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PLMR’s 2024 and 2025 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 16.8% and 19.1%, respectively, from the consensus estimate of the corresponding years.
NMI Holdings has a solid track record of beating earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average being 8.60%. In the past year, NMIH has jumped 40.3%.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for NMIH’s 2024 and 2025 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 9.1% and 8.3%, respectively, from the consensus estimate of the corresponding years.
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The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
NMI Holdings Inc (NMIH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR) : Free Stock Analysis Report
