Insurance stocks are back in the spotlight after Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder report for 2024. These stocks are not only benefiting from stable cash flows, but they are also benefiting from higher investment yields and premium growth as inflation trends have benefited insurers.
Moreover, AI and tech innovations are starting to spill over into many other industries, which include insurance. It is also benefiting from a demographic tailwind as the growing “silver segment” requires more life and health insurance.
As such, it is worth looking into some of the top performers in this industry. There are good reasons behind each of the stocks’ uptrends.
Insurance house, car and family health live concept. The insurance agent presents the toys that symbolize the coverage.
Methodology
For this article, I screened the top-performing defense stocks year-to-date. Stocks that I have covered recently will be excluded from this list.
I will also mention the number of hedge fund investors in these stocks. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
15. eHealth Inc (NASDAQ:EHTH)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 26
eHealth Inc (NASDAQ:EHTH) is the largest private health insurance marketplace.
The stock is up significantly so far in 2025 due to solid results during its Annual Enrollment Period (AEP). It led eHealth to raise its fiscal year 2024 revenue guidance to $500-520 million from $470-495 million and improve its GAAP net loss outlook to a range of $12 million loss to $3 million profit, compared to the prior forecast of a $36.5-22 million loss. Adjusted EBITDA guidance was also significantly increased to $40-55 million from $7.5-25 million.
Moreover, the company has been making an operational turnaround that is also helping financial metrics make an improvement, along with higher enrollment levels.
Its Q4 2024 earnings report is scheduled for release on February 26, 2025.
The consensus price target of $6.38 implies 38.57% downside.
EHTH is up 7.45% year-to-date.
14. Aon PLC (NYSE:AON)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q4 2024: 59
Aon PLC (NYSE:AON) is a professional services firm that provides risk management, insurance brokerage, and human capital consulting.
The stock is up significantly so far in 2025 as the company’s top line has been surging after the NFP acquisition closed in April 2024. It also posted Q4 2024 that beat analyst expectations with adjusted EPS of $4.42 versus expected $4.24.
Analysts have become increasingly bullish, with the consensus shifting to “Moderate Buy” and Keefe Bruyette raising their price target to $414 on February 5, 2025.
The consensus price target of $386.21 implies 0.85% downside.
AON is up 8.66% year-to-date.