ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday morning.

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

ProAssurance Stock Performance

Shares of ProAssurance stock opened at $24.19 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.69 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $24.21. ProAssurance has a 12 month low of $22.72 and a 12 month high of $24.85.

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $269.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $261.08 million. ProAssurance had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 4.64%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that ProAssurance will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of ProAssurance

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PRA. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd boosted its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 186.1% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,491,060 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $34,041,000 after buying an additional 969,833 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 360.0% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,039,901 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $25,124,000 after buying an additional 813,814 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 41.6% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,711,805 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $65,056,000 after buying an additional 796,132 shares in the last quarter. Man Group plc purchased a new stake in shares of ProAssurance in the third quarter valued at approximately $17,058,000. Finally, LMR Partners LLP boosted its stake in shares of ProAssurance by 287.2% in the second quarter. LMR Partners LLP now owns 806,471 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $18,412,000 after buying an additional 598,169 shares in the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About ProAssurance

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.