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| Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highway Ins. | HWY | London | Ordinary Share |
| Price Change | Price Change % | Share Price | Last Trade
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.00% | 73.50 | 01:00:00 |
| Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73.50 | 73.50 |
| Top Posts |
|---|
Posted at 27/5/2008 13:59 by wallywoo blue: the Level 2 order book looks incredibly thin, so I would be surprised if you manage to get many shares at this level. Does not mean that it won't fall futher mind, catching a falling knife here - alot of other investors prefer to wait until the share price starts recovering.IMHO with this share though, if order book picks up and you are able to buy decent volume you cannot go wrong at this price |
Posted at 04/3/2008 12:03 by owen999 ---------CLICK TO ENLARGE-------------This year if you are an investor now the 4th of March and the volatility has outstripped 2007 easily with 9 months to go. Looking at my portfoilio of stocks 10 out of 21 stocks are more volatile than FTSE. This is a high yielding portfolio. yielding 5.83% -------------------- |
Posted at 28/2/2008 10:03 by nigelwestm Yes. Looking forward to my 4.1p per share in May.These results look better than forecast. I suppose the small rise in the share price so far is because many private investors just aren't investing at the moment. Fund managers, of course, always need to spend time looking at the figures in much more detail before they decide to buy more or sell... |
Posted at 08/3/2007 13:34 by dumpling I've some ITW as part of my ethical portfolio (ha!ha!). I looked at the iii website this morning - some nervous investors there as well. Hope for the best and fear the worst. |
Posted at 07/3/2007 16:52 by dumpling Old Investors' Chronicle article15 September 2006 HIGHWAY INSURANCE (HWY) Last year's hurricanes may have been good news for rates on catastrophe-related business lines, but it's a different matter for motor insurers such as Highway. In fact, with its half-year figures, the company said the market was "highly competitive", and admitted that premiums have come under pressure as underwriters have focused on grabbing market share at the expense of rates. Even so, management says it has been able to push through some rate increases in recent months. Overall, Highway did remain profitable at the underwriting level, but the combined ratio (of claims to premiums) deteriorated, falling nearly two percentage points over the year to 98.1 per cent. Management says that cost inflation on claims is a big problem, and that inflation on injury awards is particularly concerning - they're rising at between 5 per cent and 10 per cent a year. In addition, investment income fell, helped by the impact of a weak bond market. Still, Highway does expect to at least maintain the full-year dividend at 5.3p. House broker Numis Securities expects to reduce its existing full-year operating profit forecast of £19.7m by 10-15 per cent. -------------------- Ord price: 71p Market value: £145m Touch: 71-72p 12-month High: 95p Low: 46p Dividend yield: 7.5% PE ratio: 9 Net asset value: 42p Combined ratio: 98.1% -------------------- Half-year Net Pre-tax Investment Dividend per to 30 Jun premiums (£m) profit (£m) Income (£m) share (p) -------------------- 2005 119 11.3 11.2 1.6 2006 111 7.5 10.9 1.6 % change -7 -34 -3 - -------------------- Last IC view: Fairly priced, 74p, 25 Aug 2006 Ex-div: 13 Sep Payment: 12 Oct Former chief executive Andrew Gibson is to take the helm again at Highway. But, with a far from ideal rating environment, he may face a difficult task. The prospective 7.5 per cent yield is attractive to income investors and offers support but, trading on 1.7 times net assets, the shares aren't cheap. Fairly priced. |
Posted at 31/10/2006 22:24 by karldinnel I think the divi is why most investors are here. Why not take 7.5% while it's on offer? I've been in this share since 40-odd pence. What attracted me to it in the first place was the divi and I've topped up since as the divi has been raised. I hope this progressive policy continues. |
Posted at 29/5/2006 09:57 by jezboy1 Greetings I have said it before and will say it again - HWY is an excellent 'flight' stock, in the event of the present concern about share price movements in the market; the fact is this is a solid stock with a good divi - so no surprise at all the investors have seen it as a good place to put there money in the present context. My only slight worry is the kick up attracted some speculative 'hot money' (someone mentioned a takeover rumor) which could mean greater volatility in an share price that has been for the most part reassurring in it slow and steady nature.... all IMHO and DYOR of course, J |
Posted at 16/5/2006 22:02 by jezboy1 p.s. what I meant to post before being stunned by thattechnicolor chart, was that it looks like a lot of investors are looking at reasonably 'safe' options to put their money in the middle of the present market madness... Hence non-growth correlated shares like GSK and shares with good divi's like NG. & UU. have started to look up as the rest of the FTSE 100 heads south.... I think this might encourage investors to HWY for the same kinds of reasons, and feel we may see an end to the selling. (Fingers crossed) All DYOR and IMHO etc etc J |
Posted at 10/3/2006 13:30 by chrismic Babysitter. I would like to postulate that you are correct and there might be a predator circling but do not underestimate the influence of director/directors wifes purchases. This news alone shows confidence in the share price prospects and some people will be influenced by this and may well buy in. I think there was an article in investors chronicle last year which suggested this is something that some investors look for when investing. Either way and again I stress this is my personal opinion only, the fundamentals are sound but I will not be trying to second guess this shares movement as I am sitting on these shares and looking forward to receiving my dividends. |
Posted at 15/12/2005 07:48 by rivaldo Agreed ursus - the motor insurance side is core, but the cautiously run investment side is what gives the upside from a low insurance P/E rating. Since a couple of months have passed from when Michael Walters first recommended HWY his opinion re an 80p share price might interest some and clarify further how HWY works:"Thanks to some bright posters on our splendid bulletin board, I have been keeping half an eye on Highway Insurance (HWY) for a few weeks, watching it edge higher, wondering whether the double figure yield people were projecting could possibly make sense. The good news is that it did. The bad news is that it is no longer available, since the shares have risen. But I guess many will be content to contemplate a prospective yield of 8.1% now the shares are trading at 61p to 62.5p. The payout looks assured for this year, probably for next, and could even exceed estimates if all goes well. The signal loud and clear from any stock with such a high return is that the market worries it will not be sustained. Since no guarantees are ever possible in this business, we must take that into account. But there are clear signs that the market is still in the process of understanding how a rebuilt Highway works, so the shares are not fully reflecting the real value. There is fair range of projections from the brokers who follow Highway, with Peel Hunt looking for £27.5m (earnings 9.3p) at the top, and Stephen Payne of Corporate Synergy probably at the lower end, projecting £23m (earnings 7.6p). Reality probably lies somewhere in between, but all will have run their projections past the company, and all agree that profits are set to rise this year and that earnings will comfortably cover the projected dividend. Highway is a motor insurer with a chequered career. Under new management, it has evolved over the past three years from Ockham Holdings which used to underwrite through syndicates at Lloyd's, simplifying and cleaning up the business in the process. Now the underwriting is done through an FSA regulated company which avoids direct selling and works through intermediaries, who put their own brand name on it. It writes around £250m gross premium each year with about 600,000 customers. Underwriting results have returned to normal after a couple of years of straightening out past problems, and at the June 30 half year showed a modest profit, with sufficient reserves and earlier claims being run off at a profit. Executive chairman Ross Dunlop, an experienced industry player, reported in the interim that personal injury claims exceeded accident damage and motor business is tough. Highway has only 2.5% of the UK motor market and is committed to writing for profit rather than volume, so expects no premium growth this year. It is concentrating on niche areas, third party cover, older and younger drivers. Average claims costs have been falling, and the company is earning commissions on referrals for accident repairs and replacement car hire. There is a novel deal with a law firm which yields a proportion of that firm's gross billings in return for personal injury referrals. Alongside this, Highway is looking to acquire and consolidate insurance brokers, hoping to achieve 250,000 controlled policies and £5m profits by 2008. Today (Wednesday) it announced the acquisition for £6.6m cash of MRB Insurance Brokers, a Romford company which will add 60,000 policies to Highway Retail, giving it over 170,000 policies. The broker operates from a call centre and generates business from advertising and the internet. In 2004 it handled gross premiums of £24.6m, generated brokerage income of £6.6m, and made pre-tax profits of £1m. There could be a deferred consideration, and £6.5m of cash and such in the business will be paid out to the vendors. Insurance brokers tend to command a higher rating than insurance companies, and do not suffer from underwriting uncertainties, so achieving a £5m profit from that area would be a significant prop to Highway's value. The financial motor of the company, however, lies in managing the £380m of investment funds held by the company as reserves against claims. Two Swiss banks were given a mandate to manage this in 2003, told to preserve capital while seeking to enhance cash returns to deliver a long-run assumed rate of 5.5% a year. Two-thirds of the fund is invested in cash and relatively short term fixed interest securities. There is exposure to hedge funds across eighty funds on a fund of funds basis, with the largest individual exposure at 0.2% of the fund. There is a Euro-based equity portfolio and additional cover across a wide range of asset classes. It appears to be conservatively managed, and in the first half of this year raised the return from 2.1% to 3%. The 2004 full-year return was 6.48%. It is important to realise, however, that while this appears to be going well, it is central to the progress of Highway. It could be vulnerable to sharp moves in the fixed interest market, and to some degree the equity market. Most comforting of all is the clear awareness of chairman Dunlop of the need to keep investors happy. Highway had a bid approach from Cox Insurance a couple of years back, and rejected it. Then there was an approach from Lloyd's based Chaucer. That, too, was rejected in April 2005. The share exchange offer at around 44p was felt to undervalue the business. The board has gone on to present the business strategy clearly to shareholders, and Dunlop explained in the interim statement that there had been a deliberate choice not to use a higher payout to defend the Chaucer bid. With that out of the way, it was clear that the company would be generating funds for which it had no immediate use, and that these should be distributed to shareholders. With an impressive sweep of logic which most would wish was apparent to a wider range of directors, he explained that since the company's fortunes had revived, so should shareholders participate. He promptly doubled the interim dividend to 1.6p, and promised a final of not less than 3.4p in March, barring unforeseen circumstances. He warned that motor business would continue tough for a couple of years, but was confident the company could expand and progress through two difficult years. Sounds good? Sure. And it sounds like a man who reckons he could be handling another bid approach in the next couple of years. He has a busy band of astute and aggressive institutional investors. Among them are Christopher Mills, who is associated with fund manager J.O.Hambro, and the Fidelity fund management monster. They have been reducing their stakes since the interim results, probably because the rise in price had taken them above values allowed in their funds They are still substantial holders.. The institutional investors might have had a hand in interesting previous potential suitors. It is worth noting that Cox has been taken private by Duke Street, and now employs a former Highway chief executive. Corporate Synergy projects pre-tax profits this year up from £21.4m to £23m with earnings of 7.6p, rising to £23.9m (earnings 8p) for 2006. This appears conservative, but still projects a cover of more than 1.5 times for a projected 5p total dividend, and contemplates a rise to 5.38p in the dividend for 2006. This would give a yield of 8.1% for the current year, rising to 8.7% for 2006, with a price earnings ratio of 8.1 this year, and 7.7 next. Net asset value is £88m, and the market capitalisation £125m. The market in the shares is quite good more than one million traded today (Wednesday). Questions over the sustainability of progress are more than discounted by the high yield and low pe. It would be unwise to expect massive gains, but this is a share which could easily approach 80p over the next six months, provided there is no general market crash. Adding the yield to potential capital growth gives scope for a comfortable overall return in excess of 30%. It is interesting to speculate nothing more substantial on the impact of recent sizeable stake reductions by big players. If they are finished, the price could respond nicely to any new buying. In these markets, it is important mark the downside. So do run a stop loss if you buy into this one. Set it at, say, 50p or so, depending on your tolerance of risk. Trail it up behind the price if it rises." |
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