Best Insurance investment right now? MFC, RE, CNA or RNR

[Guest HarryLong]

It will be particularly interesting to see how the Penn Millers situation pans out (PMIC). Even if they can find a buyer, I far prefer, as most long term poster here know, a great insurer such as CNA Surety (SUR) selling for a discount to book than a firm such as PMIC.

 

Is anyone here long PMIC?

[Ballinvarosig Investors]

It will be particularly interesting to see how the Penn Millers situation pans out (PMIC). Even if they can find a buyer, I far prefer, as most long term poster here know, a great insurer such as CNA Surety (SUR) selling for a discount to book than a firm such as PMIC.

 

Is anyone here long PMIC?

It doesn't look very interesting to me, especially considering how cheap profitable insurers are....

 

Have you looked at LON:BEZ by any chance? Excellent track record with prudent reserving, great combined ratio history, and a solid balance sheet. They have taken a pasting due to Japan/Aus/NZ cat losses, however, I would be inclined to think that these are likely to be one-time losses. Company is trading at just a fraction over book value. If the cat losses they have sustained actually are one-time only losses, this is trading at ~5 times earnings. Worth keeping an eye on at very least, I think.

 

No one was keen on my ProAssurance Corp suggestion that I made nearly a year ago, they have just been knocking it out of the park for the last few quarters. Trading at a measly 1.1x book value, despite the fact they've grown book value by 20% on average over the last five years. I continue to hold until shown otherwise.

[bookie71]

I have been looking at Meadowbrook Insurance Group (MIG), but am still wading through the 10K

[BargainValueHunter]

All P&C players may be getting a lift very soon...

 

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2011/12/02/225861.htm

 

Nearly half of the U.S. property insurance policies renewed in the current quarter have been at higher prices, brokerage Marsh said on Friday, adding fuel to an industry turnaround after years of declining rates.

 

Marsh said 48 percent of property policies renewed in the fourth quarter have been at a rate at least 1 percent higher. Nearly 20 percent of policies have been renewed at rate increases of more than 10 percent.

 

In addition, Marsh said nearly a fifth of renewals were done at flat rates with the prior policy.

 

With more than $70 billion in disaster losses worldwide this year, insurers are anticipating what they call a “hard market” — a period of pricing strength where they can consistently raise customers’ rates.

 

That would follow years of sharp price declines that in some cases left rates at decade-long lows. Marsh said across all policies, the average rate increase this quarter is 1.7 percent.