Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Stock Downgraded (ENH)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Endurance Specialty Holdings (NYSE:ENH) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and reasonable valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including feeble growth in the company's earnings per share, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Insurance industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 256.7% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $55.79 million to -$87.42 million.
• ENDURANCE SPECIALTY HOLDINGS has exprienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share have declined over the last year. We anticipate that this should continue in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, ENDURANCE SPECIALTY HOLDINGS reported lower earnings of $6.48 versus $8.73 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 75.3% in earnings ($1.60 versus $6.48).
• Compared to where it was a year ago today, the stock is now trading at a higher level, regardless of the company's weak earnings results. Despite the fact that it has already risen in the past year, there is currently no conclusive evidence that warrants the purchase or sale of this stock.
• ENH's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.22 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 8.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 2.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.

Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd., through its subsidiaries, engages in underwriting specialty lines of personal and commercial property and casualty insurance and reinsurance worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 13.6, above the average insurance industry P/E ratio of 13.3 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Endurance Specialty has a market cap of $1.7 billion and is part of the financial sector and insurance industry. Shares are down 7.3% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full Endurance Specialty Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

 

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