Seventeen of the 20 largest insurers trading on major US exchanges saw their market capitalization rise during the fourth quarter of 2023, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.
Most of the increases were by 6% or more, but the nine largest gains were all realized by property and casualty (P&C) insurers.
The S&P 500 Insurance index as a whole was up 6.7% nearing the end of 2023, but the sector lagged the broader market as the S&P 500 Index rose 11.7%.
Allstate takes the lead
Despite booking a pretax loss in the third quarter for the sixth consecutive quarter, The Allstate Corp.'s property-liability underwriting and ratios have improved. The P&C insurer had the largest gain in market capitalization this quarter, a 25.7% increase to $36.63 billion, compared to $29.14 billion in the prior quarter. Allstate now ranks as the 13th-largest US insurer by market capitalization, rising one rank from the previous quarter.
The Progressive Corp.'s market capitalization also improved quarter over quarter, rising to third place from fifth.
Another P&C insurer, The Travelers Cos. Inc., reported the second-largest percentage rise, increasing 16.4% to $43.51 billion, compared to $37.39 billion in the third quarter.
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest listed US insurer by market cap, logged a quarter-over-quarter increase of 4.3% to $486.95 billion, a modest rise from $467.03 billion in the third quarter. UnitedHealth and 11 others retained their positions from the previous quarter.
Elevance Health Inc. also retained its position from the previous quarter as the second-largest publicly traded US insurer with an 8.0% increase in market capitalization.
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Despite rising in rank during the previous quarter, managed care insurer Cigna Corp. dropped a position to fifth this quarter, with its market capitalization rising by 3.5%. It ended fourth quarter 2023 with a market capitalization of $87.63 billion, up from $84.67 billion at the end of the previous quarter.
Another managed care insurer, Humana Inc., reported a 6.5% decrease in its market capitalization to $56.36 billion, the second-largest decrease. Despite this, the company retained sixth place on the list throughout the previous three quarters.