ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen upgraded ProAssurance (PRA) from a "sell" to a "hold" and other firms (including Zacks) have recently raised ratings, leaving a MarketBeat consensus of a Moderate Buy with a $25.00 target price.
• Q4 results beat expectations: ProAssurance reported $0.82 EPS vs. $0.22 expected and $269.6M revenue vs. $261.1M expected, though revenue was down 7.1% year-over-year and analysts expect ~$1.08 EPS for the fiscal year.
• Shares traded around $24.67 (near its 12‑month high of $24.85), the company has a $1.27B market cap, and institutional investors own about 85.58% of the stock with large stake increases from firms like HSBC.

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA - Get Free Report) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on PRA. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ProAssurance from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of ProAssurance in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $25.00.

ProAssurance Price Performance

PRA stock opened at $24.67 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $24.59 and a 200-day moving average of $24.29. ProAssurance has a 12-month low of $22.72 and a 12-month high of $24.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.17 and a beta of 0.04.

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.60. ProAssurance had a net margin of 4.64% and a return on equity of 6.50%. The company had revenue of $269.64 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $261.08 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that ProAssurance will post 1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 20,388.9% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 11,064 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 11,010 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 50.3% during the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,573,422 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $38,879,000 after purchasing an additional 526,262 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in shares of ProAssurance during the 1st quarter worth approximately $903,000. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. increased its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 27,815 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $688,000 after purchasing an additional 734 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 20,764 shares of the insurance provider's stock worth $513,000 after purchasing an additional 1,378 shares in the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ProAssurance Company Profile

ProAssurance Corporation is a specialty property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company focuses primarily on professional liability coverage for healthcare providers, including physicians, surgeons, dentists and allied health professionals. ProAssurance operates through a group of insurance subsidiaries that underwrite both occurrence- and claims-made policies tailored to the unique risks faced by the medical community.

In addition to professional liability insurance, ProAssurance offers a suite of complementary property and casualty products, such as general liability, workers' compensation, property and inland marine, and umbrella coverage.

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