Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Grows Stock Position in The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. $THG

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. (NYSE:THG) by 19.9% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,284 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,041 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in The Hanover Insurance Group were worth $1,067,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of The Hanover Insurance Group by 45.1% in the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 907,760 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $157,905,000 after purchasing an additional 282,233 shares in the last quarter. Woodline Partners LP raised its position in shares of The Hanover Insurance Group by 166.7% during the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 346,275 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,235,000 after purchasing an additional 216,427 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in The Hanover Insurance Group by 59.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 457,809 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $79,032,000 after buying an additional 170,453 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. grew its holdings in The Hanover Insurance Group by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 464,660 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $78,932,000 after buying an additional 94,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in The Hanover Insurance Group by 9.3% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 940,522 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $163,604,000 after buying an additional 80,262 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded The Hanover Insurance Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $188.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. JMP Securities set a $205.00 target price on shares of The Hanover Insurance Group in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of The Hanover Insurance Group from $185.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of The Hanover Insurance Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of The Hanover Insurance Group in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, The Hanover Insurance Group has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $188.00.

The Hanover Insurance Group Price Performance

The Hanover Insurance Group stock opened at $171.01 on Friday. The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. has a 1 year low of $145.17 and a 1 year high of $186.46. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $176.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $169.71. The company has a market cap of $6.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.26 and a beta of 0.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.37.

The Hanover Insurance Group (NYSE:THG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The insurance provider reported $4.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.07 by $1.28. The Hanover Insurance Group had a net margin of 8.67% and a return on equity of 20.24%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. The Hanover Insurance Group’s revenue was up 3.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. will post 14.37 earnings per share for the current year.

The Hanover Insurance Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th were given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 12th. The Hanover Insurance Group’s payout ratio is 23.70%.

About The Hanover Insurance Group

The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides various property and casualty insurance products and services in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Core Commercial, Specialty, Personal Lines, and Other. The Commercial Lines segment offers commercial multiple peril, commercial automobile, workers' compensation, and other commercial lines coverage.