Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) Short Interest Down 7.3% in December

Employers Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EIG) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 448,300 shares, a decrease of 7.3% from the December 15th total of 483,500 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 117,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Employers from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered Employers from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th.

Employers Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE:EIG traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $49.82. The stock had a trading volume of 132,020 shares, compared to its average volume of 125,656. Employers has a 1 year low of $38.67 and a 1 year high of $54.44. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $51.62 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.68. The company has a market capitalization of $1.23 billion, a PE ratio of 9.33 and a beta of 0.27.

Employers (NYSE:EIG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $224.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $225.19 million. Employers had a return on equity of 9.78% and a net margin of 15.27%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Employers will post 3.65 EPS for the current year.

Employers Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 13th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 13th. Employers’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Employers by 24.2% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 458,722 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,555,000 after purchasing an additional 89,429 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can purchased a new stake in Employers during the second quarter worth about $1,522,000. Barclays PLC grew its position in Employers by 300.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,501 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,991,000 after buying an additional 31,131 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Employers by 0.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,103,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,653,000 after buying an additional 13,889 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Employers by 18.5% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 79,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,814,000 after acquiring an additional 12,422 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.49% of the company’s stock.

About Employers

Employers Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates in the commercial property and casualty insurance industry primarily in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Employers and Cerity. It offers workers’ compensation insurance to small businesses in low to medium hazard industries under the Employers and Cerity brands.