Raymond James maintains Strong Buy on Travelers with $310 target

Published 16/04/2025, 15:22
Raymond James maintains Strong Buy on Travelers with $310 target

On Wednesday, Raymond (NSE:RYMD) James reiterated its Strong Buy rating on Travelers Companies Inc. (NYSE:TRV) with a steady price target of $310.00. The firm’s assessment followed Travelers’ first-quarter earnings for 2025, which surpassed analyst expectations. Travelers reported an operating earnings per share (EPS) of $1.91, compared to the Raymond James estimate of $0.10 and the consensus estimate of $0.77. According to InvestingPro data, the company, currently valued at $58.76 billion, maintains a "GREAT" financial health score and appears undervalued based on its Fair Value analysis.

The insurance giant’s earnings were buoyed by a better-than-expected underlying combined ratio in its Personal Insurance segment and favorable prior year development (PYD) across all three segments. However, these gains were partially offset by a decrease in net investment income (NII). The company’s strong performance is reflected in its impressive 12.23% revenue growth over the last twelve months, as reported by InvestingPro, which offers comprehensive analysis through its Pro Research Report, available for over 1,400 US stocks.

In terms of business insurance, Travelers saw a slight drop in renewal premium growth to 9.2% in the first quarter of 2025 from 9.5% in the fourth quarter of 2024. Nevertheless, customer retention improved to 86% in the first quarter from 84% in the previous quarter. The personal auto renewal premiums growth decelerated to 7.0% in the first quarter from 10.1% in the fourth quarter of 2024, with retention dipping slightly to 82% from 83%. On a more positive note, homeowners’ renewal premium growth accelerated significantly to 19.6% in the first quarter from 13.8% in the fourth quarter, despite a slight decrease in retention to 84% from 86%.

Investors are expected to pay close attention to both pricing dynamics and customer retention rates following these results. Additionally, Travelers’ management provided updated guidance for net investment income, forecasting after-tax income from the fixed income portfolio to be approximately $725 million in the second quarter of 2025, with expectations of it rising to $755 million in the third quarter and $790 million in the fourth quarter.

The strong performance of Travelers is seen as setting a high benchmark for other public insurance companies and is indicative of a positive outlook for the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry as a whole.

In other recent news, Travelers Companies, Inc. reported its first quarter earnings, surpassing analyst expectations despite facing significant losses from the California wildfires in January. The company achieved core earnings of $1.91 per share, significantly higher than the projected $0.81 per share. Revenue increased by 5% year-over-year, reaching $11.81 billion and exceeding the anticipated $10.94 billion. Although Travelers faced $2.27 billion in pre-tax catastrophe losses primarily due to the wildfires, these were offset by a 32% rise in underlying underwriting income, amounting to $1.58 billion pre-tax. Net written premiums experienced a 3% growth, totaling $10.52 billion, with increases across all business segments. The company’s combined ratio worsened to 102.5% from 93.9% the previous year due to the catastrophe losses, though the underlying combined ratio improved by 2.9 points to 84.8%. Additionally, Travelers announced a 5% increase in its quarterly dividend, raising it to $1.10 per share, and repurchased $358 million of its shares during the quarter.

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