Berkshire Hathaway stock outlook 2013

Berkshire Hathaway stock outlook 2013 : Shares of Berkshire Hathaway closed at $77.97 Monday, trading for 14.4 times the consensus 2013 earnings estimate of $5.43, among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus 2014 earnings per share estimate is $5.83.

Berkshire's Class B shares were up 4 percent year-to-date through Monday's close, after returning 11 percent during 2012.

The consensus fourth-quarter earnings estimate for the Class B shares is $1.13, declining from $1.37 in the third quarter, but increasing from $1.08 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Unlike several other companies with a major property and casualty presence in the Northeast, Berkshire Hathaway has not announced a loss estimate from Hurricane Sandy. Of course, the company is involved in other businesses besides insurance, but insurance revenues made up 77 percent of total revenue during the first three quarters of 2012.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) now controls nearly 15 percent of kidney dialysis firm DaVita's (DVA) stock.

Berkshire Hathaway reported its latest purchases of 179,300 shares on Tuesday. Berkshire told the Securities and Exchange Commission it now owns 13.975 million DaVita shares. That has grown significantly since Omaha-based Berkshire first disclosed owning 2.7 million DaVita shares at the end of 2011

During 2011, the company's pre-tax underwriting gain for its combined insurance businesses was $248 million. For the first three quarters of 2012, Berkshire's combined underwriting gain for its property and casualty insurance business was $354 million.

Genworth would separate its mortgage insurance business

Best Insurance stock - Genworth would separate its mortgage insurance business  : Genworth Financial Inc said it would separate its mortgage insurance business into a new company, as the company looks to insulate itself from its troubled mortgage insurance unit, sending its shares up 4 percent before the bell.

Mortgage insurers have been struggling to recoup their losses after the housing bubble burst and foreclosures soared, leaving them with large claims on unpaid home loans.

Genworth on Wednesday said the restructuring will help protect the company from insolvency events related to its U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiaries and will not lead to a default under the indenture governing Genworth's senior notes.

Bond rating firm Moody's in September said it would likely downgrade Genworth unless the company could insulate itself from continuing losses from its mortgage insurance unit.

Genworth, which was spun off from industrial conglomerate General Electric, said the new plan along with an improving U.S. housing market is expected to result in breakeven or modest profitability for its mortgage insurance units during one or two quarters in 2013.

Genworth named Thomas McInerney as chief executive in December, replacing long-time CEO Michael Frazier who resigned after the insurer pushed back plans to sell a minority stake in its Australian mortgage insurance business through an initial public offering.

The reorganization, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2013, comes days after the company appointed Michael Derstine as chief risk officer.

The company said it will continue to hold the outstanding senior and subordinated notes, which will be guaranteed by the new company. Genworth also plans to contribute $100 million to the new company.

Shares of Genworth, which have risen about 37 percent since reporting a third-quarter profit in October, were up 4 percent at $8.45 before the bell.

Nigeria insurance market expected 2017

best insurance stock - Nigeria insurance market expected 2017 : Nigeria, Africa�s most populous nation, plans to more than triple the value of its insurance market in four years by improving the reputation of the industry, Insurance Commissioner Daniel Fola said.

�Our people don�t trust insurance,� he said in an interview today in Dubai. �We�ve done a considerable amount of housekeeping to make sure the companies respect the rules.�

The value of insurance contracts should rise to about 1 trillion naira ($6.4 billion) in 2017, about 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 300 billion naira now, or less than 1 percent of GDP, he said. Penetration should increase to 22.5 percent of the insurable population in four years from 10 percent currently, Fola said.

Compulsory motor-vehicle insurance, which makes up most contracts now, should remain at about 10 percent by 2017, while life insurance should constitute 7 percent, general business insurance 3 percent and petroleum companies� insurance 2.5 percent, he said.

Oil and gas businesses will continue to contract international companies to insure their Nigerian operations as the capacity of local insurers is limited, Fola said. As Africa�s largest oil producer, Nigeria produced about 1.9 million barrels of crude a day in December, according to Bloomberg data.

The Bloomberg Nigerian Stock Exchange insurance index, a measure of the 10 most liquid insurers on the Lagos-based bourse, has gained 11 percent so far this year, outpacing a 5.8 percent rise in the All Share Index. (NGSEINDX) Continental Reinsurance Plc (CONTINSU) shares gained 4.9 percent today, while Aiico Insurance Plc (AIICO) was up 3.9 percent.

cno financial group stock price outlook 2013

cno financial group stock price outlook 2013 : CNO Financial Group, Inc. (CNO): Engages in the development, marketing, and administration of health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance, and other insurance products for senior and middle-income markets in the United States. Market cap at $2.23B, most recent closing price at $9.84. The stock is trading 3.59% below its 52-week high.

Net institutional sales in the current quarter at -13.5M shares, which represents about 6.67% of the company's float of 202.53M shares. The 2 top sellers of the stock are GW Capital, and Acadian Asset Management.

cno financial group stock rating

CNO Financial Group Business Summary
CNO Financial Group , Inc.is a holding company for a group of insurance companies operating throughout the United States that develop, market and administer supplemental health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance and other insurance products.

Mt. Logan Re insurance vehicle

Best insurance stock - Mt. Logan Re, Ltd insurance vehicle : Another reinsurer is taking its first step into the third-party capital asset management arena by launching a vehicle dedicated to attracting investors capital to put it to use underwriting collateralized reinsurance business. Bermuda based Everest Re Group Ltd. announced the formation and launch of Bermuda domiciled special purpose reinsurer Mt. Logan Re, Ltd.  with $250m of raised capital at the end last week.

Everest Re has itself provided $50m of capital to help get Mt. Logan Re off the ground and have attracted around another $200m of third-party capital from investors reaching their initial target capitalisation of $250m. Mt. Logan Re will underwrite worldwide property catastrophe reinsurance business on a fully collateralized basis.

Joseph Taranto, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented on the launch; �We are pleased to have Rick Pagnani join us as the Chief Executive Officer of this new venture. Rick brings a wealth of experience and is well-known within the Bermuda reinsurance community. Having successfully led prior reinsurance ventures, we are fortunate to have an executive of his caliber join us to launch this new operation.�

Pagnani has a strong track record in the reinsurance market and also capital markets convergence, making him an apt choice for the role. Most recently Pagnani was a Partner with TigerRisk, a broker focusing on catastrophe risk and active in the industry loss warranty (ILW) market. Prior to that he was CEO of Bermuda reinsurance startup Ascendant Reinsurance where the firm focused on catastrophe derivatives, before that he was with Quanta Reinsurance and even earlier major reinsurers Swiss Re and Zurich Re.

Mr. Taranto added; �For Everest, this vehicle adds yet another tool to our underwriting arsenal that allows us to meet the dynamic demands of the reinsurance marketplace and enhance the returns of our investors.�

Everest Re are the latest in a growing list of reinsurers who have shown interest in leveraging capital from third-party investors for writing collateralized reinsurance business. Whether in fund or sidecar form launches of these vehicles have always been a feature of the convergence market but 2013 looks like it could see more launches than a typical underwriting year as reinsurers take advantage of investor appetite for profiting from the returns that can be made from participating in reinsurance and catastrophe risk businesses.

AlphaCat 2013 Ltd

AlphaCat 2013 Ltd; Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance group Validus Holdings has announced the successful raising of $404.4m of capital, largely from third-party investor sources, by its investment and asset management subsidiary AlphaCat Managers Ltd. The third-party capital injection is to be put to be invested in collateralized reinsurance and insurance-linked securities (ILS) by capitalising a new sidecar and adding capacity to its ILS funds.

The news underscores Validus� commitment to the third-party asset management strategy as a source of underwriting capital. Its CEO Ed Noonan said back in July that with over $1 billion under management Validus felt as though it was just scratching the surface in this segment of their business.

The new sidecar from Validus is AlphaCat 2013 Ltd., the latest in the AlphaCat series, a special purpose vehicle formed to invest in collateralized property catastrophe reinsurance and retrocession on a worldwide basis. AlphaCat 2013 launches with $230m of capital, with third-party investors having contributed $185m and Validus providing the balance.

Validus has also raised $219.4m of third-party capital as subscriptions for its ILS funds. The AlphaCat ILS funds invest in instruments which provide returns across the property catastrophe reinsurance, retrocession, catastrophe bond and ILS market.

Ed Noonan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Validus said; �AlphaCat 2013 and the third party investment in the AlphaCat ILS funds reflect the continued importance of Validus� franchise in the global property catastrophe reinsurance market. We are pleased with the significant level of investor support which reflects on the scale of Validus� operations, the skill of our underwriting team and the AlphaCat infrastructure we have developed to manage third-party capital.�

Validus has put significant time and efforts into its AlphaCat arm, which enables it to underwrite collateralized reinsurance business largely using external investors capital, and it clearly see it as a growing portion of its overall operations. As more focus is placed on this growing area of the reinsurance market Validus, as one of the largest reinsurance groups, is sure to continue to grow the contribution third-party capital makes to its underwriting and profits.