AFG Rallies 24.4% YTD but Lags Industry: How to Play the Stock

Zacks11-28

Shares of American Financial Group, Inc. AFG have rallied 24.4% year to date, outperforming the Finance sector’s return of 24.1%. It, however, underperformed the industry’s growth of 34.3% and the S&P...

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It, however, underperformed the industry’s growth of 34.3% and the S&P...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/afg-rallies-24-4-ytd-141700500.html\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"yahoofinance","html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>AFG Rallies 24.4% YTD but Lags Industry: How to Play the Stock</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAFG Rallies 24.4% YTD but Lags Industry: How to Play the Stock\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2024-11-28 22:17 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/afg-rallies-24-4-ytd-141700500.html><strong>Zacks</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Shares of American Financial Group, Inc. AFG have rallied 24.4% year to date, outperforming the Finance sector’s return of 24.1%. It, however, underperformed the industry’s growth of 34.3% and the S&P...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/afg-rallies-24-4-ytd-141700500.html\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"BK4117","symbol_name":"多元化保险","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://finance.yahoo.com/news/afg-rallies-24-4-ytd-141700500.html","article_id":"2487546343","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/EEUv5JQFTAI4U5iqIocwgw--~B/aD00MDA7dz02MzU7YXBwaWQ9eXRhY2h5b24-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/zacks.com/9d8e6ae4a2f2f78756262fb38b308001"],"rights":null,"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2487546343","pubTimestamp":1732803420,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"yahoofinance","name":"雅虎金融"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"Shares of American Financial Group, Inc. AFG have rallied 24.4% year to date, outperforming the Finance sector’s return of 24.1%. It, however, underperformed the industry’s growth of 34.3% and the S&P 500 composite’s return of 26.5%.The property and casualty insurer has increased its dividend for 18 straight years apart from paying special dividends occasionally. This reflects its financial stability, which stems from robust operating profitability in the P&C segment, stellar investment performance and effective capital management.The insurer expects its operations to continue to generate significant excess capital throughout the remainder of 2024, thus providing ample opportunity for additional share repurchases or special dividends over the next year. Notably, the 10-year compound annual growth rate for the company's regular annual dividends stands at an impressive 12.4%. This track record underscores its prudent financial management and stability. The dividend yield is 2.1%, better","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"yahoo.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"BK4117":"多元化保险","BK4107":"财产与意外伤害保险","BK4588":"碎股","BK4533":"AQR资本管理(全球第二大对冲基金)","BK4585":"ETF&股票定投概念","CINF":"辛辛那提金融","IE00B1BXHZ80.USD":"Legg Mason ClearBridge - US Appreciation A Acc USD","TRV":"旅行者财产险集团","CNA":"CAN金融","AFG":"美国金融集团有限公司"},"translate_title":"AFG年初至今上涨24.4%，但落后于行业：如何玩转该股","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"AFG":1,"CINF":1,"CNA":1,"TRV":1},"content_text":"Shares of American Financial Group, Inc. AFG have rallied 24.4% year to date, outperforming the Finance sector’s return of 24.1%. It, however, underperformed the industry’s growth of 34.3% and the S&P 500 composite’s return of 26.5%.\nImage Source: Zacks Investment Research\nWith a market capitalization of $12.41 billion, the average volume of shares traded in the last three months was 0.3 million.American Financial closed at $147.93 on Wednesday, near its 52-week high of $150.19. This proximity underscores investor confidence. It has the ingredients for further price appreciation. The stock is trading above the 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMA) of $136.17 and $130.54, respectively, indicating solid upward momentum. SMA is a widely used technical analysis tool to predict future price trends by analyzing historical price data.\nAFG’s Growth Projection Encourages\nThe Zacks Consensus Estimate for American Financial’s 2024 earnings per share indicates a year-over-year increase of 1.6%. The consensus estimate for revenues is pegged at $8.17 billion, implying a year-over-year improvement of 8.5%. The consensus estimate for 2025 earnings per share and revenues indicates a year-over-year increase of 8.8% and 7.5%, respectively, from the corresponding 2024 estimates.\nFactors Acting in Favor of AFG\nNew business opportunities, increased exposure and a good renewal rate environment, coupled with additional crop premiums from the Crop Risk Services acquisition, poise AFG well for growth.American Financial, a niche player in the P&C market, is likely to benefit from strategic acquisitions and improved pricing. Improved industry fundamentals drive overall growth.American Financial witnessed average renewal pricing across the entire P&C Group. It intends to maintain satisfactory rates in P&C renewal pricing going forward. AFG expects to achieve overall renewal rate increases in excess of prospective loss ratio trends to meet or exceed targeted returns.Its combined ratio has been better than the industry average for more than two decades. Specialty niche focus, product line diversification and underwriting discipline should help AFG outperform the industry’s underwriting results.\nWealth Distribution\nThe property and casualty insurer has increased its dividend for 18 straight years apart from paying special dividends occasionally. This reflects its financial stability, which stems from robust operating profitability in the P&C segment, stellar investment performance and effective capital management.The insurer expects its operations to continue to generate significant excess capital throughout the remainder of 2024, thus providing ample opportunity for additional share repurchases or special dividends over the next year. Notably, the 10-year compound annual growth rate for the company's regular annual dividends stands at an impressive 12.4%. This track record underscores its prudent financial management and stability. The dividend yield is 2.1%, better than the industry average of 0.2%.\nAFG Shares are Expensive\nAmerican Financial shares are trading at a price-to-book multiple of 2.64, higher than the industry average of 1.63. However, AFG shares are cheaper when compared with other insurers like The Travelers Companies, Inc. TRV, CNA Financial Corporation CNA and Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF.\nTo Conclude\nAmerican Financial’s prudent capital deployment, increased exposures, good renewal rate environment and improved combined ratio make it an attractive stock.Despite its expensive valuation, American Financial should benefit from strategic acquisitions, new business opportunities, stronger underwriting profit and favorable growth estimates. It is, therefore, wise to hold on to this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.\nWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report\nThe Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) : Free Stock Analysis Report\nCincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF) : Free Stock Analysis Report\nCNA Financial Corporation (CNA) : Free Stock Analysis Report\nAmerican Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) : Free Stock Analysis Report\nTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.\nZacks Investment Research","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"1","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.29.3","shortVersion":"4.29.3","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2487546343"}