U.S. insurance industry

We believe U.S. P&C and Diversified Insurance companies will benefit from the hardening of rates after a year of catastrophe losses in 2020. 2021 EPS growth is expected to range from 40% to 60% and we examined premium and revenue growth to pick out stocks on our Interest List.

  • Insurance-Life: AEL, PRI, SLF. Actionable: SLF, PRI.
  • Insurance-Prop/Cas/Title: ALL, CB, ESGR, FAF, GSHD, KNSL, LMND, MKL, PGR, RE, RLI, SIGI. Actionable: ALL.
  • Insurance-Brokers: AON, BRO, BRP, EHTH, SLQT. Actionable: None.
  • Insurance-Diversified and Acc & Health: AIZ, L, MFC, PLMR, TRUP, UNM. Actionable:  None.

O’Neil Financial Sector Weekly

Afterpay Touch ( APT.AU ) – $32B market cap: (Trim into strength) Afterpay is a technology-driven payments company. The company was formed as a result of a merger between Afterpay and Touchcorp in June 2017 (each separately listed entities prior to the merger). It offers a unique ‘buy now, receive now, pay later’ service that does not require end-customers to enter into a traditional loan/pay any upfront fees/interest

Afterpay

Key points from this report:

 

  • Afterpay was added to our Focus List on October 15, 2020. We reiterated the stock following its December 15 breakout and it has rallied more than 30% since then.
  • We recommend that investors trim positions and take some profits while holding a core position as shares are trading ~14% and ~30% above their 21- and 50-DMA, respectively.
  • We continue to have a positive view of Afterpay. The stock has high fundamental ratings: Composite Rating of 99, SMR Rating of A, and EPS Rank of 85.
  • Technical ratings: RS Rating 92, Up/Down Volume ratio 1.5, A/D Rating B+.
  • Institutional sponsorship has increased more than 3x y/y to 533 in December 2020.
  • The Finance – Credit Card/Payment Processor Industry Group is currently ranked 10 (out of 135 groups in Australia).