Raymond James on Wednesday lifted its rating on Travelers Cos. Inc. to market perform from underperform after the component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average posted better-than-expected earnings. The insurer on Tuesday reported adjusted first-quarter earnings of $4.22 a share, well ahead of the $3.61 FactSet consensus. Revenue rose 6% to $8.809 billion from $8.313 billion a year ago, also beating the $8.029 billion FactSet consensus target. Raymond James analyst C. Gregory Peters said the results marked the eighth quarter out of the last 12 where the company beat profit estimates. “While the stock traded down [on Tuesday] after reporting 1Q22 results, due in part to investors’ concerns of declining renewal rate changes and rising loss cost trends, it has outperformed on a YTD basis up 12.6% (S&P 500 -6.6%),” Peters said. Shares of Travelers rose 0.2% in premarket trades after falling 4.9% in the previous session.
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