AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) Raised to “Buy” at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) from an underperform rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $68.00 price objective on the insurance provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $53.00.

AXS has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of AXIS Capital in a research note on Thursday, August 17th. They set a buy rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on AXIS Capital from $59.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on AXIS Capital in a report on Friday, September 8th. They set a sell rating and a $51.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $62.20.

AXIS Capital Stock Performance

Shares of AXS opened at $57.09 on Friday. AXIS Capital has a one year low of $48.32 and a one year high of $63.99. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $54.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.87 billion, a PE ratio of 14.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.84.

AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 2nd. The insurance provider reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.46. AXIS Capital had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 6.85%. The company had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.39 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that AXIS Capital will post 8.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Henry B. Smith sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.50, for a total transaction of $333,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 49,710 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,758,905. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AXIS Capital

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AXS. Norges Bank bought a new stake in AXIS Capital in the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,577,000. Macquarie Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of AXIS Capital by 213.6% in the fourth quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 1,206,258 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $65,343,000 after acquiring an additional 821,635 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in AXIS Capital by 1,531.0% in the third quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 631,926 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $31,059,000 after acquiring an additional 593,181 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in AXIS Capital by 3.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,948,453 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $480,644,000 after purchasing an additional 288,068 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AXIS Capital by 41.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 888,853 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $53,749,000 after purchasing an additional 260,639 shares during the period. 89.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About AXIS Capital

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides various specialty insurance and reinsurance products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Insurance segment offers property insurance products for commercial buildings, residential premises, construction projects, and onshore energy installations; marine classes covering offshore energy, cargo, liability, kidnap and ransom, fine art, specie, and hull war; and terrorism, aviation, credit and political risk, and liability insurance products.