Wells Fargo & Company Raises AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) Price Target to $74.00

AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) had its target price raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $63.00 to $74.00 in a research report report published on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an underweight rating on the insurance provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on AXS. UBS Group raised their price objective on AXIS Capital from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised AXIS Capital from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Roth Mkm lifted their price target on AXIS Capital from $75.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Bank of America lifted their price target on AXIS Capital from $74.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on AXIS Capital from $86.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $76.29.

AXIS Capital Price Performance

Shares of AXS stock opened at $74.87 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.59 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.86. The company has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. AXIS Capital has a twelve month low of $52.90 and a twelve month high of $78.74.

AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The insurance provider reported $2.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.41. The business had revenue of $1.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.49 billion. AXIS Capital had a return on equity of 19.70% and a net margin of 11.28%. AXIS Capital’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.23 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AXIS Capital will post 10.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Stanley A. Galanski acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.43 per share, with a total value of $142,860.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,763 shares in the company, valued at $840,231.09. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Stanley A. Galanski acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $71.43 per share, with a total value of $142,860.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,763 shares in the company, valued at $840,231.09. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Michael Millegan acquired 1,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was bought at an average cost of $71.49 per share, for a total transaction of $100,086.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 9,016 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $644,553.84. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AXIS Capital

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AXIS Capital by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,707,110 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $482,113,000 after purchasing an additional 75,085 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in AXIS Capital by 3.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,075,087 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $287,909,000 after purchasing an additional 152,914 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AXIS Capital by 9.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,583,700 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $182,538,000 after purchasing an additional 213,559 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in AXIS Capital by 30.7% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,321,271 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $150,928,000 after purchasing an additional 545,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC increased its holdings in shares of AXIS Capital by 12.5% during the second quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC now owns 1,417,464 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $100,144,000 after acquiring an additional 157,110 shares in the last quarter. 93.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.