MGIC Investment Posts Solid November Results; Shares Gain

MGIC Investment Corp. (NYSE:MTG) recently announced its Nov 2016 operating business statistics. Shares of the company hit a new 52-week high of $9.83 to finally close at $9.79 on Dec, gaining 2.84% during the trading session.

Insurance in force for Nov 2016 was $181.3 billion, up 4.4% year over year. Delinquency loans (loans that failed to pay back) at MGIC Investment declined on a year-over-year basis. Delinquent inventory for the month under review was 50,136, down 19.7% year over year.

MGIC Investment was severely affected by the 2008 financial crisis. However, the company is steadily recovering owing to declining delinquencies and improving cure rates on claims from its legacy business. The prospects of the company also look bright in terms of growing book of high-credit-quality business written since 2009.

MGIC Investment has been witnessing an increase in new business written owing to larger origination volume as well as an increase in the private mortgage insurance industry’s market share. The company now expects to write $46 billion of new insurance in 2016 with insurance in force increasing 4–5% in 2016. Further, positive credit trends, low expense ratio are tailwinds for the company.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) multiline line insurer gained 19%, outperforming the Zacks categorized Multiline Insurance industry’s increase of 17.1%. We expect improving housing market and declining delinquency to boost the company’s earnings in the coming quarters and help the shares retain momentum.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked insurers are AEGON N.V. (NYSE:AEG) , FBL Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:FFG) and AXIS Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) . Each of these carry Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

AEGON provides of life insurance, pensions, and asset management services. Shares of the company gained 47.9%, outperforming the industry.

FBL Financial sells annuity and individual life insurance products. Its shares gained 23.26%, outperforming the industry.

AXIS Capital provides specialty lines insurance and treaty reinsurance products worldwide. Shares of the insurer gained 15.8%, outperforming the industry.

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