Assurant price target raised to $217 from $200 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler raised the firm’s price target on Assurant to $217 from $200 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares. The firm notes that ex-catastrophe loss uncertainty, relative positioning appears strong into Q3 with Global Housing structurally having greater expense leverage than just a couple of years ago, while auto in Global Lifestyle is 2/3 of premiums for that business and seemingly should have a multi-year re-pricing cycle to drive improved profitability eventually, although headwinds were present just a quarter ago. Nonetheless, late September Hurricane Helene hitting the Southeast leaves a wildcard to earnings for lender placed insurance business that is the largest business within Global Housing and where the meaningful improvement in the loss ratio has been seen after multiple years of inflation guard driven rate increases, Piper adds.