Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) Short Interest Down 5.4% in March

Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) was the recipient of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 365,300 shares, a decline of 5.4% from the March 15th total of 386,100 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 138,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Employers

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Employers by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,154,256 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $124,278,000 after acquiring an additional 16,997 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Employers by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $257,000 after acquiring an additional 469 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its holdings in shares of Employers by 12.0% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,534 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Employers by 125.4% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 49,307 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,943,000 after acquiring an additional 27,427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP increased its stake in Employers by 104.7% in the fourth quarter. Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP now owns 15,978 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $630,000 after purchasing an additional 8,174 shares during the last quarter. 80.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on EIG shares. Truist Financial lifted their price target on Employers from $53.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded Employers from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th.

Employers Stock Performance

Shares of EIG stock opened at $42.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $44.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.03. The stock has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 9.51 and a beta of 0.24. Employers has a 1 year low of $35.43 and a 1 year high of $46.78.

Employers (NYSE:EIG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 16th. The financial services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $225.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $215.38 million. Employers had a return on equity of 10.54% and a net margin of 13.88%. Employers’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.25 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Employers will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Employers Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 13th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 27th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. Employers’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.06%.

Employers Company Profile

Employers Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates in the commercial property and casualty insurance industry primarily in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Employers and Cerity. It offers workers' compensation insurance to small businesses in low to medium hazard industries under the Employers and Cerity brands.