More than three-quarters of the largest 20 public insurers trading on major US exchanges saw their market capitalizations rise during the third quarter, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.
Among the top 20 publicly listed insurers, 16 experienced market capitalization increases quarter over quarter, with most rising 5% or more.
Chubb tops its peers
Property and casualty insurer Chubb Ltd. saw the largest gain as its market capitalization increased 11.5% to $85.51 billion in the third quarter from $76.69 billion a quarter earlier. Chubb now ranks as the third-largest US insurer by market capitalization, rising from fifth in the previous quarter.
Life insurer MetLife Inc. reported the second-largest percentage rise, increasing 9.3% to $47.31 billion, from $43.29 billion a quarter prior. However, it retained its position as the seventh-largest listed US insurer.
UnitedHealth Group Inc., by far the largest public insurer in the US, logged a modest 4.4% quarter-over-quarter increase in market capitalization, rising to $467.03 billion from $447.49 billion.
UnitedHealth, along with 11 other publicly traded US insurers in the top 20, retained its ranking from the previous quarter.
Elevance Health Inc. held on to its position as the second-largest publicly traded US insurer despite a 2.6% decline in market capitalization.
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Despite Cigna Corp.’s market capitalization rising 2.0%, the managed care insurer slid into fourth place. It ended the third quarter with a market capitalization of $84.67 billion, up from $83.02 billion at the end of the prior quarter.
Managed care insurer Humana Inc. occupied sixth place on the list following a 7.9% rise in its market capitalization to $60.28 billion, retaining its previous-quarter rank.
Insurance index outperforms
The S&P 500 Insurance Index outperformed the broader market in the third quarter. The insurance index finished up 3.4% for the period while the S&P 500 fell 3.3%.
