The group is not a bad place to be," says Cliff Gallant, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. "You can buy good franchises at good prices." He sees most companies generating respectable, low-double-digit returns on equity this year, while producing similar increases in book value. The P&C stocks could rise 20% in the next year, based on book-value growth and higher valuations, relative to book value and earnings. Gallant favors Chubb, Ace, and Bermuda-based reinsurers Everest Re (RE) and PartnerRe (PRE).

Quarterly dividend increased to 35 cents a share from 33 cents, a 6.1% increase.

Next on the list is Chubb. The Warren, N.J.-based insurance
company announced that it would buyback up to 20 million shares of
common stock. Chubb, which is one of the largest business insurers,
also said it would pay a regular quarterly dividend of 33 cents a
share in January.


During the third quarter, Chubb bought back 5.9 million shares of its common stock at a total cost of $284 million. There were 3.4 million shares of common stock remaining under the current buyback plan as of
September 30, 2008.


John Finnegan, Chubb’s chairman, president, and CEO said, “The pace of the buyback will depend on the state of the global capital markets and the potential opportunities for profitable growth in the property and
casualty insurance market.”


On October 23, 2008, the company reported third quarter results with net income of $264 million, or 73 cents a share, compared to $738 million, or $1.87 a share, in the same period of 2007. Chubb
estimates catastrophe losses in the third quarter will be about $400 million. Most of these losses can be attributed to Hurricane Ike,which includes their share in the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.


Chubb’s counterparty credit rating was raised by Standard & Poor’s
Rating Services to A+ from A to reflect “reduced notching between the operating group and the holding company.” In addition, S&P reaffirmed its AA counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Chubb’s operating insurance companies.


It’s good to see that Dreman Value Management hold CB in its
portfolio. Mr. Dreman is the founder, and chairman of Dreman Value Management, and also the firm’s Chief Investment Officer. Dreman Value Management focuses on the assets of mutual funds, pension, foundation
and endowment funds, as well as high net-worth individuals. The fund’s
Large Cap Value Fund has returned 17% annually on average and its
Small Cap Value Fund has returned 16.5% annually on average since the
firm’s inception in 1991. Their top holdings are ConocoPhillips and Devon Energy.

Dodge & Cox is another top notch firm that owns Chubb stock. Dodge & Cox is a $100 billion-dollar investment fund founded in San Francisco in 1930. The firm provides investment management services to individuals, retirement funds and tax exempt
institutions. The firm has a long term focus and employs a rigorous
price discipline. The firm’s Stock Fund has posted an annual average
return of 14.47% over the past 10 years and 14.9% over the past 20
years, easily outperforming the S&P 500. Their other top stocks are Hewlett-Packard and Novartis.


So we have a buyback, a dividend, an upgrade in credit ratings, and
two investment firms buying stock. It might be time to take a closer look at Chubb.

From a recent Mad Money show: I do, however, like Chubb Corp (CB) and Travelers Companies (TRV). "

Property-and-casualty insurance stocks got a lift recently amid expectations of an end to the slide in commercial premiums. Yet, Allstate (ALL) and The Travelers Companies (TRV) still trade at or under book value, while two of the strongest insurers, Ace (ACE) and Chubb (CB), trade at modest premiums to book and at less than 10 times projected 2009 profits. Depressed asset managers like Franklin Resources (BEN) and AllianceBernstein (AB) trade for 10 to 15 times projected 2009 profits.

Cramer wasn’t recommending any particular stock, but he did say names like Allstate [ALL], MetLife [MET], Prudential [PRU] Chubb [CB] and The Travelers [TRV], which dealt mainly in the safer property, casualty and life insurances, stand to gain the most by any AIG fallout.

You are also seeing the Chubbs (CB) of the world, the competitors to AIG, which could be gigantic winners.

He said buy names like Chubb (CB), Travelers (TRV), Metlife (MET) and Prudential (PRU)

14%

Chubb has one of the few valuable brand names in insurance. How cheap is Chubb? Its shares, at around 50, trade for about eight times projected 2008 profits and just 1.3 times book value. Chubb is generating a respectable 16% return on equity and has no meaningful exposure to subprime mortgages in its investment portfolio.

long term invest