Palomar Holdings, Inc. PLMR has been trading above its 50-day simple moving average (SMA), signaling a short-term bullish trend. Its share price, as of Jan. 15, 2025, was $107.11, down 5.1% from its 52-week high of $112.90.

The 50-day SMA is a key indicator for traders and analysts to identify support and resistance levels. It is considered particularly important as this is the first marker of an uptrend or downtrend.

With a market capitalization of $2.83 billion, Palomar is set to gain from new business, strong premium retention rates for existing business and renewals of existing policies, better pricing and effective capital deployment. This property and casualty insurer has a solid track record of beating earnings estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average being 14.90%.

PLMR Price Movement vs. 50-Day Moving Average

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PLMR is an Outperformer

Shares of Palomar Holdings have surged 74.7% in the past year, outperforming its industry, the Finance sector and the Zacks S&P 500 composite’s growth of 23%, 23.5% and 24.4%, respectively.

PLMR Outperformed Industry, Sector and S&P 500 in 1 Year

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PLMR’s Growth Projection Encourages

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Palomar Holdings’ 2025 earnings per share and revenues indicates a year-over-year increase of 23.3% and 27%, respectively, from the corresponding 2024 estimates. 

PLMR has an impressive Growth Score of A. This style score helps analyze the growth prospects of a company.

Optimistic Analyst Sentiment on PLMR

One of the six analysts covering the stock has raised estimates for 2025 over the past 30 days. Thus, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 moved 0.5% north in the last 30 days.

PLMR’s Return on Capital

Return on equity is a measure of profitability reflecting how efficiently the company is utilizing its shareholders’ value. Return on equity of 21.7% compared favorably with the industry’s average of 7.5%. Also, the return on invested capital in the trailing 12-months was 18.5%, better than the industry average of 5.8%, reflecting the company’s efficiency in utilizing funds to generate income.

Factors Impacting PLMR

Premiums, the principal component of an insurer’s top line, should continue to benefit from the increased volume of policies written across the lines of business. New business generated, strong retention rates, strategic expansion of products’ geographic and distribution footprint and new partnerships should help in retaining the momentum. 

High-quality fixed-income securities, a higher average balance of investments, and an increase in fixed-income yields favor improvement in net investment income, which witnessed a five-year (2018-2023) CAGR of 49%. 

Palomar Holdings’ fee-generating PLMR-FRONT should fuel growth in the medium term. The addition of the fee-based revenue stream to the business is expected to strengthen its earnings base.

The company’s prudent underwriting expertise is reflected in its combined ratio, which has been under 95% since 2017, except in 2020. PLMR’s risk transfer strategy lowers exposure to major events, which, in turn, reduces earnings volatility.

Palomar Holdings has a debt-free balance sheet. Continued operational excellence also helps it maintain a strong capital position. PLMR expects to generate adjusted net income between $124 million and $128 million in 2024. This range includes catastrophe losses incurred during the fourth quarter of 2024 of nearly $8 million related to Hurricane Milton.

PLMR Shares are Expensive

Its shares are trading at a premium to the Zacks Property and Casualty Insurance industry. Its price-to-book value of 4.03X is higher than the industry average of 1.68X.

Shares of The Travelers Companies, Inc. TRV are also trading at a multiple higher than the industry average, while NMI Holdings Inc NMIH and Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF shares are trading at a discount.

Conclusion

Strong retention rates, higher average balance of investments, as well as financial flexibility, poise the company well for growth. Higher return on capital and favorable growth estimates are the other positives.

Palomar Holdings has a VGM Score of B, which indicates a potential upside and instills confidence. VGM Score helps identify stocks with the most attractive value, best growth and the most promising momentum. Back-tested results have shown that stocks with a VGM Score of A or B combined with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) offer better returns. 

Thus, despite its premium valuation, this Zacks Rank #2 stock remains one of investors’ favorites for addition to their portfolios. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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The Travelers Companies, Inc. (TRV) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF) : Free Stock Analysis Report

NMI Holdings Inc (NMIH) : Free Stock Analysis Report

Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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