Axis Capital Holdings Limited $AXS Position Lowered by Geode Capital Management LLC

Geode Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in Axis Capital Holdings Limited (NYSE:AXS) by 3.7% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,291,544 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 50,220 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Axis Capital were worth $134,108,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AXS. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Axis Capital by 21.6% in the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 658 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its position in Axis Capital by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 25,065 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,513,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Axis Capital by 2.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 8,231 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $825,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Intrust Bank NA grew its position in Axis Capital by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Intrust Bank NA now owns 6,042 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $606,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impact Partnership Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Axis Capital by 7.8% in the 2nd quarter. Impact Partnership Wealth LLC now owns 2,743 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $285,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on AXS shares. Wells Fargo & Company set a $123.00 target price on shares of Axis Capital and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Axis Capital from $125.00 to $119.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Axis Capital in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. UBS Group upped their price target on Axis Capital from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut 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 issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $115.00.

Axis Capital Stock Performance

Axis Capital stock opened at $99.43 on Thursday. Axis Capital Holdings Limited has a fifty-two week low of $83.90 and a fifty-two week high of $107.19. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $95.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $98.13. 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 company has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 0.73.

Axis Capital (NYSE:AXS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The insurance provider reported $3.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.72 by $0.53. Axis Capital had a net margin of 16.08% and a return on equity of 19.25%. The firm had revenue of $184.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 3.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict 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 given a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 30th. Axis Capital’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.55%.

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.