Brokerages Set Palomar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLMR) PT at $162.50

Shares of Palomar Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLMR) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $162.75.

PLMR has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Palomar from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Palomar from $166.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Palomar from $150.00 to $167.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Weiss Ratings raised Palomar from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Finally, Evercore set a $152.00 price target on Palomar in a research report on Friday, July 10th.

Insider Activity at Palomar

In other Palomar news, insider Timothy Carter sold 480 shares of Palomar stock in a transaction that occurred on Sunday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $59,659.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,670 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,564.30. The trade was a 22.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Mac Armstrong sold 3,500 shares of Palomar stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.26, for a total transaction of $480,410.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 325,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,731,386.88. The trade was a 1.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 22,050 shares of company stock valued at $2,875,050. Corporate insiders own 3.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Palomar

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Palomar in the 2nd quarter valued at about $556,348,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its position in shares of Palomar by 250.1% during the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 795,625 shares of the company’s stock worth $107,237,000 after buying an additional 568,360 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Palomar by 290.2% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 497,080 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,675,000 after buying an additional 369,697 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Palomar by 72.1% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 785,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,809,000 after buying an additional 328,993 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Palomar during the second quarter worth about $30,966,000. 90.25% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Palomar Stock Up 0.1%

Palomar stock opened at $131.69 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $127.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.70. Palomar has a fifty-two week low of $100.81 and a fifty-two week high of $147.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.70 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.50 and a quick ratio of 0.50.

Palomar (NASDAQ:PLMR) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The company reported $2.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $314.42 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $621.52 million. Palomar had a net margin of 18.61% and a return on equity of 23.28%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.76 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Palomar will post 8.96 EPS for the current year.

Palomar Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. Palomar’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.19%.

About Palomar

Palomar Holdings, Inc (NASDAQ: PLMR) is a specialty insurance holding company focused on providing medical stop-loss coverage and related administrative services to self-funded employer health plans in the United States. The firm operates through two primary business segments—Medical Stop-Loss and Specialty Program Management—to deliver tailored risk protection and comprehensive program administration.

In its Medical Stop-Loss segment, Palomar underwrites excess and aggregate stop-loss policies designed to shield self-insured employers from catastrophic medical claims that exceed pre-determined retention levels.