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 attractive valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 13.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.4%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
• ENH's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.19 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels.
• ENDURANCE SPECIALTY HOLDINGS reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, ENDURANCE SPECIALTY HOLDINGS swung to a loss, reporting -$2.97 versus $6.48 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($4.50 versus -$2.97).
• Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to $45.39 million or 57.56% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.
• The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Insurance industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, ENDURANCE SPECIALTY HOLDINGS underperformed against that of the industry average and is significantly less than that of the S&P 500.

Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. underwrites specialty lines of personal and commercial property and casualty insurance and reinsurance worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 34.5, below the average insurance industry P/E ratio of 35.2 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Endurance Specialty has a market cap of $1.53 billion and is part of the financial sector and insurance industry. Shares are down 8.1% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

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

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. click any of the following:

• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Stock Price

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• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Earnings

• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Ratio Comparison

• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Growth Rates

• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Balance Sheet

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• Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. Income Statement