Canaccord downgrades Lloyd's insurers Beazley, Hiscox and Lancashire

Canaccord Genuity cut its stance on Hiscox, Beazley and Lancashire on Monday as it took a look at the UK insurance sector and said first-quarter commentary points to more challenges.

The broker downgraded Hiscox to 'sell' from hold', keeping the price target at 1,580p. It cut Beazley to 'hold' from 'buy', keeping the 610p price target and downgraded Lancashire Holdings to 'hold' from 'buy' with an unchanged price target of 725p

Canaccord maintained its 'buy' rating on Hastings, but reduced the price target to 225p from 235p and kept Sabre at 'hold' while trimming the price target to 305p from 310p. It kept Direct Line at 'sell' with a 280p price target.

"For the Lloyd's insurers (Beazley, Hiscox and Lancashire), there were positive comments about rating momentum (albeit not a hard market), much improved investment returns but some negatives re higher attritional loss activity and loss creep (especially around Typhoon Jebi), all of which will impact reserve releases," it said.

"For personal lines insurers (Direct Line, Hastings and Sabre), the continued pressure on pricing that means, for most, any rate rises achieved are not as yet keeping up with, let alone surpassing, current (high) claims inflation. This suggests the resultant turn in UK motor rates could well be pushed out to Q4 19/Q1 20."

Canaccord said it expects Beazley and Hiscox to take a more cautious stance on both 2018-19 claims and reserve movements, especially on casualty/Typhoon Jebi, which will impact 2019.

"We see a similar theme at Lancashire, albeit without the prior year loss creep, plus it does not have large casualty exposures," it added.

At 1100 BS, Beazley shares were down 0.8% at 562p, Hiscox was 0.6% lower at 1,758p and Lancashire was 0.3% lower at 701.50p.