Harder Markets Driving James River Group

James River Group (JRVR) is a relatively small specialty insurer, but it punches somewhat above its weight by focuses on attractive areas like excess & surplus and fronting. Although the company saw an uncommon negative reserve development in 2017 due to higher losses from its business with Uber, James River has moved quickly to re-underwrite that business. All told, this has historically been an insurer with strong underwriting discipline, very good expense control, and a willingness to return capital to shareholders.

Between a restructured relationship with Uber and hardening markets in several of its core excess and surplus specialties, I think James River is looking at an attractive market opportunity relative to the overall P&C market. Even though the shares haven’t done much over the past year, they don’t look strikingly cheap today, as I think a mid-$40’s price is quite fair right now.

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Harder Markets Driving James River Group