Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $1.41 Million Investment in Palomar Holdings, Inc. $PLMR

Key Points

• Louisiana State Employees Retirement System opened a new position in Palomar Holdings in the first quarter, buying 11,800 shares valued at about $1.41 million.
• Palomar continues to draw mixed but generally positive analyst attention: several firms cut price targets, yet the stock still carries a Moderate Buy consensus with an average target price of $147.75.
• Insiders have been selling shares recently, including CEO Mac Armstrong and executive Timothy Carter, while Palomar also reported Q1 EPS of $2.31, beating estimates despite revenue coming in below expectations.

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of Palomar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLMR - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 11,800 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,410,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in Palomar by 49.1% in the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,956 shares of the company's stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in Palomar by 5.4% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 15,427 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,115,000 after purchasing an additional 791 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Palomar in the first quarter worth about $66,000. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in Palomar in the first quarter worth about $223,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in shares of Palomar by 11.9% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 72,661 shares of the company's stock worth $9,960,000 after buying an additional 7,754 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.25% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PLMR has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Palomar from $160.00 to $150.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Palomar from $151.00 to $132.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Palomar from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 18th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Palomar from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Palomar from $186.00 to $159.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Palomar currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $147.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Mac Armstrong sold 3,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.96, for a total value of $395,360.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 329,388 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,207,668.48. The trade was a 1.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Timothy Carter sold 480 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Sunday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $59,659.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 1,670 shares in the company, valued at $207,564.30. This represents a 22.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold a total of 19,114 shares of company stock worth $2,351,100 in the last 90 days. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Palomar Trading Up 4.7%

Shares of PLMR opened at $140.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.49 and a quick ratio of 0.49. Palomar Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $100.81 and a 1 year high of $148.53. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.42 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.73. The firm has a market cap of $3.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.50 and a beta of 0.41.

Palomar (NASDAQ:PLMR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.17 by $0.14. Palomar had a net margin of 20.11% and a return on equity of 22.62%. The firm had revenue of $278.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $557.79 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 59.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Palomar Holdings, Inc. will post 8.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Palomar Profile

Palomar Holdings, Inc NASDAQ: PLMR is a specialty insurance holding company focused on providing medical stop-loss coverage and related administrative services to self-funded employer health plans in the United States. The firm operates through two primary business segments—Medical Stop-Loss and Specialty Program Management—to deliver tailored risk protection and comprehensive program administration.

In its Medical Stop-Loss segment, Palomar underwrites excess and aggregate stop-loss policies designed to shield self-insured employers from catastrophic medical claims that exceed pre-determined retention levels.

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