US property and casualty players shine as insurers get market cap lift in Q4'23

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.