Cozad Asset Management Inc. Sells 1,110 Shares of Axis Capital Holdings Limited $AXS

Cozad Asset Management Inc. decreased its stake in Axis Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 10,605 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 1,110 shares during the quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Axis Capital were worth $1,101,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AXS. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Axis Capital by 22.3% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,290,411 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $328,580,000 after purchasing an additional 600,901 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Axis Capital by 95.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,852,398 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $185,685,000 after buying an additional 903,107 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its position in Axis Capital by 28.9% during the second quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 964,260 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $100,109,000 after acquiring an additional 216,357 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Axis Capital by 12.1% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 925,265 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $92,749,000 after acquiring an additional 99,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in shares of Axis Capital by 174.6% in the 2nd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 744,842 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $77,329,000 after acquiring an additional 473,608 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AXS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Axis Capital from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Axis Capital in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $104.00 target price for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Axis Capital from $125.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $123.00 price target on Axis Capital and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Axis Capital from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $115.00.

Axis Capital Stock Performance

AXS opened at $100.85 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.69. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $95.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.14. Axis Capital Holdings Limited has a 1 year low of $83.90 and a 1 year high of $107.19. The company has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a PE ratio of 8.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.73.

Axis Capital (NYSE:AXS) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The insurance provider reported $3.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.72 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $184.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.33 billion. Axis Capital had a return on equity of 19.25% and a net margin of 16.08%.The company’s revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Axis Capital Holdings Limited will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Axis Capital Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 30th were issued a dividend of $0.44 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Axis Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.55%.

Axis Capital Company Profile

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.