The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Makes New $5.50 Million Investment in Selective Insurance Group, Inc. $SIGI

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company purchased a new stake in Selective Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGI) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 56,653 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,496,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Selective Insurance Group during the second quarter worth $468,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Selective Insurance Group by 138.0% in the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 62,686 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,245,000 after purchasing an additional 36,351 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Selective Insurance Group by 3.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,359,224 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $102,473,000 after purchasing an additional 44,532 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in Selective Insurance Group by 46.1% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 237,076 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $19,836,000 after purchasing an additional 74,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Selective Insurance Group by 92.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 253,223 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $19,090,000 after purchasing an additional 121,487 shares during the period. 82.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Selective Insurance Group

In related news, EVP Michael H. Lanza sold 17,100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.04, for a total value of $1,608,084.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 16,565 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,557,772.60. This represents a 50.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.82% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on SIGI. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of Selective Insurance Group from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and set a $97.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Selective Insurance Group from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Selective Insurance Group from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Selective Insurance Group from $72.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Selective Insurance Group from $101.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Selective Insurance Group has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $100.33.

Selective Insurance Group Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ SIGI opened at $91.29 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.29 and a quick ratio of 0.29. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $95.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $87.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.33 and a beta of 0.30. Selective Insurance Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $72.78 and a 1 year high of $100.40.

Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.66 by $0.29. Selective Insurance Group had a net margin of 9.10% and a return on equity of 14.51%. The company had revenue of $1.39 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.31 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Selective Insurance Group, Inc. will post 8.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Selective Insurance Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.43 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Selective Insurance Group’s payout ratio is presently 21.34%.

About Selective Insurance Group

Selective Insurance Group, Inc is an insurance holding company headquartered in Branchville, New Jersey. The organization traces its roots to a regional provider of property and casualty coverage and became a publicly traded holding company following its initial public offering in 1999. Since its formation, Selective has expanded through strategic acquisitions and organic growth initiatives to broaden its product offerings and strengthen its market position.

The company’s core business encompasses a broad range of property and casualty insurance products designed to serve both commercial and personal lines customers.