Gabelli Funds LLC Takes Position in ProAssurance Corporation $PRA

Gabelli Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of ProAssurance Corporation (NYSE:PRA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 71,187 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,720,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of PRA. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP lifted its stake in ProAssurance by 1,050.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP now owns 575,000 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $13,794,000 after buying an additional 525,000 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. lifted its stake in ProAssurance by 73.6% in the 3rd quarter. Alpine Associates Management Inc. now owns 952,547 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $22,852,000 after buying an additional 403,807 shares in the last quarter. Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P purchased a new position in ProAssurance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,007,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in ProAssurance by 58.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 157,891 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $3,788,000 after buying an additional 58,382 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its stake in ProAssurance by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC now owns 3,026,173 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $72,598,000 after buying an additional 69,365 shares in the last quarter. 85.58% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PRA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Zacks Research raised shares of ProAssurance from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of ProAssurance from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, ProAssurance has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

ProAssurance Trading Down 0.1%

PRA opened at $24.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.27 and a quick ratio of 0.27. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.35. ProAssurance Corporation has a 1-year low of $22.72 and a 1-year high of $24.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.69 and a beta of 0.04.

ProAssurance (NYSE:PRA) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The insurance provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25. ProAssurance had a net margin of 5.99% and a return on equity of 6.82%. The business had revenue of $262.63 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $216.86 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that ProAssurance Corporation will post 1.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ProAssurance Company Profile

ProAssurance Corporation is a specialty property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company focuses primarily on professional liability coverage for healthcare providers, including physicians, surgeons, dentists and allied health professionals. ProAssurance operates through a group of insurance subsidiaries that underwrite both occurrence- and claims-made policies tailored to the unique risks faced by the medical community.

In addition to professional liability insurance, ProAssurance offers a suite of complementary property and casualty products, such as general liability, workers’ compensation, property and inland marine, and umbrella coverage.