National General Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NGHC) Receives “Buy” Rating from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated their buy rating on shares of National General Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NGHC) in a report released on Tuesday, July 25th. They currently have a $27.00 target price on the insurance provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on NGHC. BidaskClub raised shares of National General Holdings Corp from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of National General Holdings Corp from a strong sell rating to a hold rating and set a $24.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 20th. Finally, ValuEngine cut shares of National General Holdings Corp from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, May 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. National General Holdings Corp has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $24.67.

National General Holdings Corp (NGHC) traded down 1.34% during trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 158,545 shares. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.31 and a beta of 1.25. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $21.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $22.79. National General Holdings Corp has a 52 week low of $18.04 and a 52 week high of $26.99.

National General Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:NGHC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 8th. The insurance provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38. National General Holdings Corp had a net margin of 3.70% and a return on equity of 10.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $943.94 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.50 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 36.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that National General Holdings Corp will post $1.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 3rd were paid a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, June 29th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. National General Holdings Corp’s payout ratio is currently 13.56%.

In other news, COO Peter A. Rendall sold 30,901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.06, for a total transaction of $650,775.06. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 126 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,653.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Peter A. Rendall sold 32,659 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.05, for a total transaction of $720,130.95. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,686 shares in the company, valued at $1,404,276.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 3.43% of the stock is owned by insiders.

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of National General Holdings Corp by 4.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,118,335 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $97,851,000 after buying an additional 180,570 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of National General Holdings Corp by 14.6% in the first quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 2,037,874 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $48,420,000 after buying an additional 259,243 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in National General Holdings Corp by 7.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,445,459 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $34,343,000 after buying an additional 103,100 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in National General Holdings Corp by 2.4% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,358,467 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $32,267,000 after buying an additional 32,314 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pembroke Management LTD increased its stake in National General Holdings Corp by 1.4% in the first quarter. Pembroke Management LTD now owns 1,314,600 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $31,234,000 after buying an additional 18,200 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.76% of the company’s stock.

About National General Holdings Corp

National General Holdings Corp. is a specialty personal lines insurance holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the Company provides a range of insurance products, including personal and commercial automobile, homeowners, umbrella, recreational vehicle, supplemental health, lender-placed and other niche products.