February As Good As Break-Even Gets

February was the month of the Specialists, with six of eight stocks in the group wearing plus signs. Leading the way was Horace Mann Educators Corp., the specialty underwriter of personal property/casualty and life insurance products sold principally to teachers. HMN moved up 12.64% to close the month at $22.54. I am waiting to hear takeover rumors, but I have heard none as yet.

Next came the Brokers, with five out of six stocks gravitating to the upside.

The largest group, the Property & Casualty contingent, marked time and ended down just 0.55%. However, the tone was much more positive than negative. There were 25 advances and 17 declines. To ice the cake there were seven double-digit winners, most of them higher priced stocks, which could be considered institutional holdings.

The Multi-lines, the Life & Health stocks and the Reinsurers all moved in a narrow range. The best that can be said is that there was a positive tone in all three groups.

MONY Group caught my attention as a double-digit performer, up 10.34% to $39.48. This gain is an encore to smaller advances in recent months.

Im still cautiously optimistic for the period ahead. The awful fallout from WTC 9/11 should be mostly in the prices of our stocks, while the rate increases may not be.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, April 1, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.