5,105 Shares in Loews Corporation $L Bought by Jefferies Financial Group Inc.

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Loews Corporation (NYSE:L) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,105 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $538,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in L. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Loews by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,426,064 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $2,045,759,000 after purchasing an additional 108,882 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Loews by 0.4% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,363,861 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $337,698,000 after purchasing an additional 12,311 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in Loews by 0.4% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,340,867 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $134,610,000 after purchasing an additional 4,792 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in Loews by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 811,194 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $85,427,000 after purchasing an additional 37,327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System raised its holdings in Loews by 12.1% in the third quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 777,030 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $78,006,000 after purchasing an additional 83,669 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 58.33% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Loews

In other news, Director Andrew H. Tisch sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.81, for a total transaction of $5,440,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 12,480,400 shares in the company, valued at $1,357,992,324. This trade represents a 0.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 19.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Loews Price Performance

L opened at $103.61 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $107.95 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The company has a market cap of $21.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.56. Loews Corporation has a 12-month low of $86.77 and a 12-month high of $114.90.

Loews (NYSE:L) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The insurance provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $4.56 billion during the quarter. Loews had a return on equity of 8.51% and a net margin of 8.83%.

Loews Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 27th will be issued a dividend of $0.0625 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.25 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Loews’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 3.18%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (a-)” rating on shares of Loews in a report on Friday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Strong Buy”.

About Loews

Loews Corporation (NYSE: L) is a diversified holding company that owns and operates businesses across insurance, hospitality, energy-related operations and other industrial and investment activities. The company holds controlling and significant minority interests in subsidiaries that run as standalone businesses, with corporate oversight focused on capital allocation, risk management and long-term value creation for shareholders.

One of Loews’ principal businesses is insurance, conducted through CNA Financial, a commercial property and casualty insurer that underwrites a range of business insurance products for corporate and institutional clients.