Wall Street Zen Downgrades ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) to Sell

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on PRA. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ProAssurance from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ProAssurance in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $25.00.

ProAssurance Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of PRA opened at $24.61 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.27, a quick ratio of 0.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of 25.11 and a beta of 0.02. ProAssurance has a 1 year low of $22.72 and a 1 year high of $24.85. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.21.

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.60. ProAssurance had a return on equity of 6.50% and a net margin of 4.64%.The business had revenue of $269.64 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $261.08 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.36 EPS. ProAssurance’s quarterly revenue was down 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that ProAssurance will post 0.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ProAssurance

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of ProAssurance by 40.4% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 134,641 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,144,000 after purchasing an additional 38,756 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of ProAssurance by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 30,293 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $707,000 after buying an additional 1,302 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of ProAssurance by 181.5% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 306,540 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $7,158,000 after buying an additional 197,663 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp acquired a new position in ProAssurance during the 1st quarter worth about $600,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in ProAssurance by 47.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 511,759 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $11,950,000 after buying an additional 165,024 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 85.58% of the company’s stock.

About ProAssurance

ProAssurance Corporation is a specialty property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company focuses primarily on professional liability coverage for healthcare providers, including physicians, surgeons, dentists and allied health professionals. ProAssurance operates through a group of insurance subsidiaries that underwrite both occurrence- and claims-made policies tailored to the unique risks faced by the medical community.

In addition to professional liability insurance, ProAssurance offers a suite of complementary property and casualty products, such as general liability, workers’ compensation, property and inland marine, and umbrella coverage.