Short Interest in Selective Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGI) Decreases By 33.9%

Selective Insurance Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIGI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 1,267,827 shares, a drop of 33.9% from the March 15th total of 1,917,383 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 586,814 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.2 days.

Institutional Trading of Selective Insurance Group

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Selective Insurance Group by 56.3% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,059,547 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $339,662,000 after purchasing an additional 1,462,838 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Selective Insurance Group by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,660,758 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $138,976,000 after purchasing an additional 8,580 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Selective Insurance Group by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,314,692 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $110,004,000 after purchasing an additional 44,305 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Selective Insurance Group by 239.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,036,519 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $86,726,000 after purchasing an additional 730,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Selective Insurance Group during the fourth quarter worth about $65,625,000. 82.88% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on SIGI shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Selective Insurance Group from $92.00 to $84.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Selective Insurance Group in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Selective Insurance Group in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Selective Insurance Group from $79.00 to $86.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $83.60.

Selective Insurance Group Stock Up 0.1%

Selective Insurance Group stock traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $80.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 490,945 shares, compared to its average volume of 558,848. Selective Insurance Group has a fifty-two week low of $71.75 and a fifty-two week high of $93.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The company has a market cap of $4.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.77 and a beta of 0.26. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $80.96.

Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The insurance provider reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.24 by $0.33. Selective Insurance Group had a return on equity of 14.23% and a net margin of 8.74%.The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.36 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.62 earnings per share. Selective Insurance Group’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Selective Insurance Group will post 7.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Selective Insurance Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 13th were paid a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 13th. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Selective Insurance Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.96%.

Selective Insurance Group Company Profile

Selective Insurance Group, Inc is an insurance holding company headquartered in Branchville, New Jersey. The organization traces its roots to a regional provider of property and casualty coverage and became a publicly traded holding company following its initial public offering in 1999. Since its formation, Selective has expanded through strategic acquisitions and organic growth initiatives to broaden its product offerings and strengthen its market position.

The company’s core business encompasses a broad range of property and casualty insurance products designed to serve both commercial and personal lines customers.