Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014

Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co. fell the most in almost three years in Shanghai trading as drugmakers declined after the Xinhua News Agency reported China is starting a campaign to crack down on illegal competition in the industry.

Jiangsu Hengrui dropped 5.9 percent to 32.76 yuan at the close, the biggest loss since Oct. 11, 2010. Beijing SL Pharmaceutical Co. slid 5.8 percent to 55.59 yuan. A gauge of health-care companies fell 3 percent, the most among 10 industry groups on the CSI 300 index. The Shanghai Composite index dropped 0.9 percent and CSI 300 index lost 1.2 percent.

��he crackdown on irregularities in the medical sector has undermined confidence among some investors and they expect drug prices to fall,��said Wu Kan, a Shanghai-based fund manager at Dragon Life Insurance Co., which oversees $3.3 billion.

The campaign, which will last until the end of November, will target ��ommercial bribery��and ��nfair competition��by companies abusing a dominant market position, Xinhua said, citing the State Administration for Industry & Commerce.

Top Consumer Service Stocks To Watch Right Now: Prudential Financial Inc.(PRU)

Prudential Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers various financial products and services in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The company operates through three divisions: The U.S. Retirement Solutions and Investment Management, The U.S. Individual Life and Group Insurance, and The International Insurance and Investments. The U.S. Retirement Solutions and Investment Management division provides individual variable and fixed annuity products, as well as offers retirement investment and income products and services to retirement plan sponsors in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. This division also provides investment management and advisory services to the public and private marketplace. The U.S. Individual Life and Group Insurance division offers individual variable life, term life, and universal life insurance products; and group life, long-term and short-term group disability, long-term care, and group corporate-, bank-and trus t-owned life insurance products to institutional clients. This division also sells accidental death and dismemberment, and other ancillary coverages, as well as provides plan administrative services; and offers preferred provider and indemnity dental coverage plans to clients. The International Insurance and Investments division provides international individual life insurance products in Japan, Korea, and other foreign countries; and offers proprietary and non-proprietary asset management, investment advice, and services to retail and institutional clients internationally. In addition, the company engages in real estate brokerage franchise business, which involves marketing its franchises to the real estate companies. Further, it provides institutional clients and government agencies with various services in connection with the relocation of their employees. Prudential Financial, Inc. was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Wallace Witkowski]

  What�� more, the financial sector is expected to be the biggest drag on revenue growth for the quarter. With the S&P 500 expected to post 0.3% revenue growth for the fourth quarter, revenue for the financial sector is expected to decline by 10.2%, according to Butters. Much of that has to do with Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU) , which had a big one-time revenue gain due to pension risk-transfer transactions in the year-ago quarter. But even without the insurer, revenue for the sector is still expected to decline by 0.3%, according to Butters.

Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: The Travelers Companies Inc.(TRV)

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides various commercial and personal property and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals primarily in the United States. The company operates in three segments: Business Insurance; Financial, Professional, and International Insurance; and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers property and casualty products and services, such as commercial multi-peril, property, general liability, commercial auto, and workers? compensation insurance. It operates in six groups: Select Accounts, which serves small businesses; Commercial Accounts that serves mid-sized businesses; National Accounts, which serves large companies; Industry-Focused Underwriting that serves targeted industries; Target Risk Underwriting, which serves commercial businesses requiring specialized product underwriting, claims handling, and risk management services; and Special ized Distribution that offers products to customers through licensed wholesale, general, and program agents. The Financial, Professional, and International Insurance segment provides surety and financial liability coverage, which uses a credit-based underwriting process; and property and casualty products primarily in the United States., the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Canada. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals. It distributes its products through independent agents, sponsoring organizations, joint marketing arrangements with other insurers, and direct marketing. The company was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Laura Brodbeck]

  Notable earnings releases expected on Tuesday include:

  Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $1.20 on revenue of $17.95 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $1.19 on revenue of $17.56 billion. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.65 on revenue of $31.04 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.45 on revenue of $30.04 billion. The Travelers Company (NYSE: TRV) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $1.66 on revenue of $5.79 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $2.22 on revenue of $5.70 billion. Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.63 on revenue of $9.02 billion, compared to last year�� EPS of $0.28 on revenue of $8.60 billion. Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.89 on revenue of $7.56 billion compared to last year�� EPS of $0.63on revenue of $7.29 billion.

  Economics

• [By Dan Carroll]

  Things heat up on Tuesday for Dow investors, with four companies on the index reporting quarterly data. Analysts expect $0.01 year-over-year earnings gains from Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) and DuPont (NYSE: DD  ) , projecting average EPS figures of $2.02 and $1.52, respectively, while estimating United Technologies' (NYSE: UTX  ) earnings to dip $0.01 from last year's quarter to $1.30. AT&T (NYSE: T  ) is also expected to succeed in its earnings on Tuesday, with experts projecting earnings of $0.64 per share, a year-over-year gain of more than 6%. AT&T's stock has shot up by nearly 14% in the past three months alone, and an earnings beat could send shares even higher.

• [By Alex Planes]

  Perhaps it could. On June 8, 2009, the Dow's editors tapped Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO  ) to replace the belly-up automaker, and also replaced floundering Citigroup (NYSE: C  ) with Travelers (NYSE: TRV  ) , its onetime subsidiary. When the change was announced, Dow Jones editor-in-chief Robert Thomson noted that Cisco was the right choice "because its communications and computer-networking products are vital to an economy and culture still adapting to the Information Age��-��ust as automobiles were essential to America in the 20th century." Citigroup's ouster was necessary as well, since its financial-crisis struggles had left the government with a substantial stake, and had left the bank in the midst of a "substantial restructuring."

• [By Sue Chang]

  Travelers Inc. (TRV) , the only financial stock in the Dow reporting Tuesday, is expected to turn in earnings of $2.16 a share in the fourth quarter.

Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: Triad Guaranty Inc (TGICQ)

Triad Guaranty Inc., incorporated in 1993, is a holding company which, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Triad Guaranty Insurance Corporation (TGIC), is a nationwide mortgage insurer. During the year ended December 31, 2011, Collateral Mortgage, Ltd. (CHL) owns 16.8% of the common stock of TGI. The Company has historically provided Primary and Modified Pool mortgages guaranty insurance coverage on United States residential mortgage loans.

Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection to lenders on individual loans and covers a percentage of unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure (collectively, the insured amount or claim amount). Primary insurance was written on both flow and structured bulk transactions. Flow transactions consisted of loans originated by lenders that were submitted to the Company on a loan-by-loan basis, whereas structured bulk transactions involved underwriting and insuring a group of loans with individual coverage for each loan. Insurance on primary policies consists of 80% of the Company's total insurance in force at December 31, 2011.

Modified Pool insurance was written only on structured bulk transactions. Policies insured as part of a Modified Pool transaction have individual coverage, but an aggregate stop-loss limit applies to the entire group of insured loans. In addition, some of the Modified Pool transactions included deductibles representing a percentage of the total risk originated under which the Company pays no claims until the losses exceed the deductible amount. Modified Pool insurance consists of 20% of the Company's total insurance in force at December 31, 2011.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Zachary Tracer]

  Mortgage insurers PMI and Triad Guaranty Inc. (TGICQ) filed for bankruptcy after housing crashed. Old Republic International Corp. also retreated from the mortgage guaranty business.

Best Insurance Stocks To Buy For 2014: American Financial Group Inc (AFG)

American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG), incorporated on July 1, 1997, is a holding company, which through subsidiaries, is engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses and in the sale of traditional fixed and fixed-indexed annuities in the individual, bank and education markets. The Company�� segment includes: property and casualty insurance, annuity, run-off long-term care and life and other. In August 2012, the Company sold its Medicare supplement and critical illness businesses.

Property and Casualty Insurance

AFG�� specialty property and casualty insurance operations consist of approximately 30 niche insurance businesses offering a range of commercial coverages. Under the property and transportation segment, inland and ocean marine provides coverage primarily for builders' risk, contractors' equipment, property, motor truck cargo, marine cargo, boat dealers, marina operators/dealers and excursion vessels. The agriculture-related business provides federally reinsured multi-peril crop (allied lines) insurance covering perils, as well as crop-hail, equine mortality and other coverages for operating farms/ranches and agribusiness operations on a nationwide basis. The commercial automobile business provides coverage for vehicles (such as buses and trucks) in a range of businesses, including the moving and storage and transportation industries, and a specialized physical damage product for the trucking industry.

Under the specialty casualty segment, executive and professional liability business markets coverage for directors and officers of businesses and non-profit organizations, errors and omissions, and provides non-United States medical malpractice insurance. The umbrella and excess liability business provides higher layer liability coverage in excess of primary layers. The excess and surplus business provides liability, umbrella and excess coverage for risks, using rates and forms that ge! nerally do not have to be approved by state insurance regulators. The general liability business provides coverage for contractor-related businesses, energy development and production risks, and environmental liability risks. The targeted programs includes coverage (primarily liability and property) for social service agencies, leisure, entertainment and non-profit organizations, customized solutions for other targeted markets and alternative risk programs using agency captives. The Workers��Compensation provides coverage for prescribed benefits payable to employees who are injured on the job.

Under the specialty financial segment, fidelity and surety provides fidelity and crime coverage for government, mercantile and financial institutions and surety coverage for various types of contractors and public and private corporations. Lease and loan services provides coverage for insurance risk management programs for lending and leasing institutions, including equipment leasing and collateral and mortgage protection.

Annuity Operations

AFG�� annuity operations is engaged primarily in the sale of fixed and fixed-indexed annuities in the individual, bank and education markets through independent producers and also sell annuities through direct relationships with banks. Annuities are long-term retirement saving instruments that benefit from income accruing on a tax-deferred basis. The issuer of the annuity collects premiums, credits interest or earnings on the policy and pays out a benefit upon death, surrender or annuitization. Single premium annuities are generally issued in exchange for a one-time lump-sum premium payment. Certain annuities, primarily in the education market, have premium payments that are flexible in both amount and timing as determined by the policyholder and are generally made through payroll deductions.

A fixed-indexed annuity provides policyholders with the opportunity to receive a crediting rate tied, in part, to the performanc! e of an e! xisting market index (generally the S&P 500) while protecting against the related downside risk through a guarantee of principal (excluding surrender charges, market value adjustments, and certain benefit charges). AFG purchases call options designed to substantially offset the effect of the index participation in the liabilities associated with fixed-indexed annuities.

Run-off long-term care and life

The majority of AFG�� investment in its run-off long-term care and life operations (including 100% of its long-term care business) is in the following subsidiaries: United Teacher Associates Insurance Company, Continental General Insurance Company and Manhattan National Life Insurance Company. United Teacher Associates Insurance Company�� products include Long-term care, life and annuities. Continental General Insurance Company�� products include Long-term care, life and annuities.

Other Operations

Through subsidiaries, AFG is engaged in a range of other operations, including commercial real estate operations in Cincinnati (office buildings and The Cincinnatian Hotel), New Orleans (Le Pavillon Hotel), Whitefield, New Hampshire (Mountain View Grand Resort), Chesapeake Bay (Skipjack Cove Yachting Resort and Bay Bridge Marina), Charleston (Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina), Palm Beach (Sailfish Marina and Resort), Florida City, Florida (retail commercial development) and apartments in Louisville and Pittsburgh.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  Shares of American International Group have dropped 1.7% to $49.67 at 1:19 p.m. today, while American Financial Group (AFG) has, dropped 0.2% to $57.23, HCC Insurance (HCC) is little changed at $45.12,�Travelers (TRV) has dipped 0.1% to $83.52 and Chubb (CB) is off 0.1% at $86.58.

• [By Ben Levisohn]

  For the past several years, Berkshire has contrasted its own cost-free float provided by profitable underwriting against the industry�� (unimpressive) tendency to lose money on underwriting while generating net returns from investment income. So far, so good. Less edifying, though, is the repeated contrast of Berkshire�� track record of profitability to State Farm��…even though, as a mutual company, State Farm�� profitability goals are inherently different from for-profit insurers like Berkshire. It�� true that through year-end 2013, Berkshire�� underwriters have ��ow operated at an underwriting profit for eleven consecutive years,��but so have ACE (ACE), American Financial (AFG),� AmTrust Financial (AFSI), Arch Capital (ACGL), Chubb (CB), HCC (HCC), Progressive (PGR), RLI (RLI), and W.R. Berkley (WRB), any or all of whom provide a more meaningful comparison than contrasting Berkshire�� results to a company that�� not out to produce a profit in the first place.