Majority of biggest US insurers saw market cap decline in Q2

More than half of the largest 20 public insurers that trade on major U.S. exchanges saw their market capitalizations decline during the second quarter, according to an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis.

Among the top 20 publicly listed insurers, 14 experienced market capitalization declines quarter over quarter, with most falling by 10% or more.

American International Group Inc. took the steepest tumble, as its market capitalization fell 20% to $40.50 billion from $50.61 billion a quarter earlier. AIG now ranks as the ninth-largest U.S. insurer, down from eighth a quarter earlier.

Life insurer Prudential Financial Inc. experienced the second-largest percentage decline, falling 19.2% to $35.88 billion from $44.43 billion. It also dropped one position, slipping to 11th.

Health insurers buck trend

UnitedHealth Group Inc., by far the largest public insurer in the U.S., logged a modest 0.4% quarter-over-quarter increase in market capitalization, rising to $481.87 billion from $479.83. UnitedHealth, as well as the other top five publicly traded U.S. insurers, all retained their rankings from the previous quarter.

Rebranded from Anthem, Elevance Health Inc. held onto its position as the second-largest publicly traded U.S. insurer despite a 1.8% decline in market capitalization.

Chubb Ltd. also retained its rank as the third-largest publicly traded insurer, even as its market capitalization slid 8.1% quarter over quarter $83.74 billion from $91.17 billion. Cigna Corp., which saw its market capitalization grow 9.6% sequentially, nearly caught Chubb in the period. It ended the second quarter with a market capitalization of $83.61 billion, up from $76.29 billion at the end of the prior quarter.

Managed care insurer Humana Inc. took sixth place on the list following a 7.4% sequential rise in its market capitalization to $59.21 billion. Humana swapped ranks with MetLife Inc., which saw an 11.9% decline to $51.06 billion.

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Trending down

Insurance stocks generally lost ground in the second quarter, but did a little better than the broader market. The S&P 500 Insurance index fell 10% in the period while the S&P 500 Index fell 16.1%.