Insurers tumble on double whammy of storm and rates

Fednat Holding Co

12/10/2018 18:45

** Shares of U.S. insurers tumbled Fri with Florida exposed
cos such as Heritage Insurance Holdings  HRTG.N  and Kemper Corp
 KMPR.N  leading losses. This as investors eyed damage from
Hurricane Michael as well as interest rates
    ** HRTG last down 5.5 pct, showing 3-day losses of 11 pct,
the day before Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle
    ** Sandler O'Neill analyst John Barnidge cut FY estimate for
HRTG EPS to $1.10 from $1.65, with 45 cents of cut related to
Michael. Barnidge expects big damage claims from the storm
    ** Kemper, which has auto insurance exposure in Florida was
last down 6.1 pct on track for biggest one-day loss since early
Feb 2016. At Fri low point, Kemper showed three-day decline of
12.5 pct
    ** Other home insurers with big Florida exposure also
dipping. United Insurance Holdings  UIHC.O , HCI Group  HCI.N ,
Federated National  FNHC.O  and Universal Holdings  UVE.N 
falling between 1 and 3 pct
    ** National home insurers also down. Chubb  CB.N , American
International  AIG.N , Travelers  TRV.N  down more than 2 pct.
Progressive  PGR.N , Allstate  ALL.N  down more than 1 pct
    ** Paul Newsome, Sandler O'Neill's analyst covering large
insurers, said too early to estimate how big Michael losses
would be for those cos
    ** Meanwhile, the U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield  US10YT=RR  is
ticking up about 1 bp on the day, trading at about 3.14 percent 
   

 ((sinead.carew@thomsonreuters.com; +1 (646) 223 6186; Reuters
Messaging: sinead.carew.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))