Hedge Funds Have Endorsed These Four Insurance Stocks

Chubb Corp (NYSE:CB) also made the list as 48 funds reported long positions in the company with a total value of $1.43 billion. The company registered an increase in popularity as as 23 more funds reported long positions in the company at the end of September. The increase in popularity comes on the back of Chubb Corp’s acquisition by ACE Limited (NYSE:ACE) in a stock and cash deal valued at $28.3 billion, which was completed last week.

#1 American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG)

Investors with Long Positions (as of September 30): 94

Aggregate Value of Investors’ Holdings (as of September 30): $8.43 Billion

The total number of hedge funds holding shares of American International Group Inc (NYSE:AIG) in their equity portfolios slid by five during the third quarter, while the aggregate value of their holdings declined by 26%, amid a 7% fall registered by the stock during the same period.

Lately, the notorious activist investor Carl Icahn has been urging AIG’s management to break the company into three parts, namely life, property & casualty and mortgage insurance. This will remove the company from the ‘Systemically Important Financial System’ category and hence time consuming tougher restrictions. Another investor pushing for the three-part separation is John Paulson’s Paulson & Co. According to a filing with the SEC, Carl Icahn’s Icahn Capital owns around 42 million shares of AIG, while Paulson holds 14.60 million shares, as revealed in its last 13F filing.

American International Group has not made any announcements regarding the separation of its segments, but according to some reports, its Board of Directors was considering the spin-off of its mortgage-insurance business, which is, however, the smallest part of AIG. Nevertheless, AIG continues to boast strong fundamentals and the management has expressed devotion to increase the shareholder value by boosting its buyback program. In December, the board authorized expanding the buyback program by an additional $3.0 billion to $4.3 billion.

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