5 Stocks Pushing The Insurance Industry Higher

Editor's Note: 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

All three major indices are trading down today with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) trading down 28 points (-0.2%) at 13,217 as of Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012, 12:05 PM ET. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,125 issues advancing vs. 1,742 declining with 157 unchanged.

The Insurance industry currently sits up 0.3% versus the S&P 500, which is down 0.3%. Top gainers within the industry include Proassurance Corporation (PRA), up 6.8%, Aegon (AEG), up 1.3% and ING Groep N.V (ING), up 0.5%.

TheStreet Ratings group would like to highlight 5 stocks pushing the industry higher today:

5. MBIA (MBI) is one of the companies pushing the Insurance industry higher today. As of noon trading, MBIA is up $0.63 (7.7%) to $8.77 on heavy volume Thus far, 2.6 million shares of MBIA exchanged hands as compared to its average daily volume of 2.8 million shares. The stock has ranged in price between $8.16-$8.91 after having opened the day at $8.16 as compared to the previous trading day's close of $8.14.

MBIA Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides financial guarantee insurance and related reinsurance, advisory, and portfolio services for the public and structured finance markets; and asset management advisory services in the United States and internationally. MBIA has a market cap of $1.6 billion and is part of the financial sector. Shares are down 27.9% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday. Currently there are no analysts that rate MBIA a buy, no analysts rate it a sell, and 1 rates it a hold.

TheStreet Ratings rates MBIA as a sell. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its unimpressive growth in net income, generally high debt management risk, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share. Get the full MBIA Ratings Report now.

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