Top 10 Insurance Stocks To Watch For 2014

Top 10 Insurance Stocks To Watch For 2014: American International Group Inc.(AIG)

American International Group, Inc. is an international insurance organization. The company operates property and casualty insurance networks worldwide and conducts activities in the U.S. life insurance and retirement services industry. It also involves in commercial aircraft leasing and residential mortgage guaranty insurance businesses. The company, through Chartis Inc., provides various property and casualty insurance products under commercial and consumer categories worldwide. These products include surplus lines, executive liability/directors? and officers? liability, employment practices, excess casualty, and travel/assistance lines. American International Group, through SunAmerica Financial Group, offers a suite of life insurance and retirement products and services, including term life, universal life, accident and health, fixed and variable deferred annuities, fixed payout annuities, mutual funds, and financial planning products and services to individuals and grou ps in the United States. The company, through International Lease Finance Corporation, operates as an aircraft lessor that acquires commercial jet aircraft from various manufacturers and other parties, and leases those aircraft to airlines worldwide. It also sells aircraft from its fleet to other leasing companies, financial services companies, and airlines, as well as provides management services to third-party owners of aircraft portfolios. American International Group, through United Guaranty Corporation, issues residential mortgage guaranty insurance that covers mortgage lenders from the first loss for credit defaults on high loan-to-value conventional first-lien mortgages for the purchase or refinance of one- to four-family residences in the U.S. and internationally. The company was founded in 1967 and is based in New York, New York.

Ad! visors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  American International Group (AIG) has made oodles of progress since its bad pre-financial-crisis bets nearly took it down. If nothing else, American International Group’s 49% annualized return during the past five years is a sign of that progress.

  Bloomberg News

  Just don’t expect more of the same, say Deutsche Bank’s Joshua Shanker and Phil Stefano who downgraded American International Group. They explain why:

  After making significant improvements in its core operations, elevated expenses continue to impose a ceiling on the profitability of [American International Group's] the property and casualty business. Management indicates that Fuji unit integration costs will keep expenses high through 2014, which suggests that core ROE may stagnate at around 6% for the foreseeable future. While we believe cash flow will ultimately exceed core and GAAP EPS, we believe incremental buyers will need to see additional combined ratio improvement to be motivated to purchase [American International Group] stock.

  Shanker and Stefano expect shares of American International Group to remain range bound near $50 in the short-term.

  Shares of American International Group have dropped 1.7% to $49.67 at 1:19 p.m. today, while American Financial Group (AFG) has, dropped 0.2% to $57.23, HCC Insurance (HCC) is little changed at $45.12, Travelers (TRV) has dipped 0.1% to $83.52 and Chubb (CB) is off 0.1% at $86.58.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  It’s been a good day for life insurers across the board today, thanks to speculation that the Fed could get more hawkish following today’s jobs report–and higher interest rates would benefit insurers. Shares of Prudential have gained 2% to $88.47 at 2:53 p.m. today, while Metlife (MET) has risen 1.3% to $53.04 and Lincoln National (LNC) has advanced 1.6% to $52.75. American International Group (AIG) has dropped 0.2% to $51.05.

• [By Marc! Bastow]

  Global insurance company AIG (AIG) raised its quarterly dividend 25% to 12.5 cents per share, payable March 25 to shareholders of record as of March 11.
  AIG Dividend Yield: 1.03%

• [By Christina Rexrode]

  American International Group (AIG)  said late Thursday that it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, and it announced plans to raise its dividend and buy back more of its own shares. But analysts were concerned about weakness in the property and casualty line, where the bank needs to cut costs if it wants to get consistent underwriting profits, said Sandler O'Neill analyst Paul Newsome. With no major catastrophes, like last year's superstorm Sandy, analysts had expected more improvement in the unit's "severe losses," said Evercore analyst Mark Finkelstein.

source from Top Stocks Blog:http://www.topstocksblog.com/top-10-insurance-stocks-to-watch-for-2014.html