Axis Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) Receives $121.00 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Axis Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $120.50.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AXS shares. Atlantic Securities set a $122.00 price objective on Axis Capital in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Axis Capital in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Axis Capital from $131.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Capital One Financial set a $108.00 price objective on shares of Axis Capital in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Axis Capital from $131.00 to $126.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 3rd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AXS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Axis Capital by 27.6% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 439,989 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $47,118,000 after acquiring an additional 95,207 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP raised its stake in shares of Axis Capital by 31.4% in the 1st quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 53,905 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,467,000 after purchasing an additional 12,896 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp bought a new position in shares of Axis Capital during the fourth quarter worth about $2,192,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in Axis Capital by 37.0% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 92,101 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $9,863,000 after purchasing an additional 24,884 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qsemble Capital Management LP increased its holdings in Axis Capital by 258.4% in the fourth quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP now owns 37,672 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,034,000 after buying an additional 27,160 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.44% of the company’s stock.

Axis Capital Trading Down 1.1%

AXS stock opened at $103.34 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.34, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $106.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $103.34. Axis Capital has a 52 week low of $88.07 and a 52 week high of $119.99.

Axis Capital (NYSE:AXS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The insurance provider reported $2.84 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.25 by ($0.41). Axis Capital had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 17.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.74 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.29 EPS. Axis Capital’s revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Axis Capital will post 12.58 EPS for the current year.

Axis Capital Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 30th were given a dividend of $0.44 per share. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 30th. Axis Capital’s payout ratio is presently 12.50%.

About Axis Capital

AXIS Capital Holdings Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides various specialty insurance and reinsurance products in Bermuda, the United States, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Insurance segment offers professional insurance products that cover directors' and officers' liability, errors and omissions, employment practices, fiduciary, crime, professional indemnity, medical malpractice, and other financial insurance related coverages for commercial enterprises, financial institutions, not-for-profit organizations, and other professional service providers; and property insurance products for commercial buildings, residential premises, construction projects, property in transit, onshore renewable energy installations, and physical damage and business interruption following an act of terrorism.