Kemper Corporation (NYSE:KMPR) Receives Average Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Kemper Corporation (NYSE:KMPR) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Reduce” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $51.75.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on KMPR shares. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Kemper from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Kemper from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Kemper from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Kemper from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Kemper from $35.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Kemper

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Kemper by 40.1% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,780,270 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $143,323,000 after buying an additional 795,131 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Kemper by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,776,543 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $143,131,000 after buying an additional 316,216 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Kemper by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,472,276 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $100,227,000 after buying an additional 140,539 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Kemper by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,212,025 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $142,764,000 after buying an additional 10,213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lakewood Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Kemper by 13.7% in the 3rd quarter. Lakewood Capital Management LP now owns 1,181,090 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $60,885,000 after buying an additional 142,000 shares in the last quarter. 86.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Kemper Stock Performance

KMPR opened at $24.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.93 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a fifty day moving average of $30.22 and a 200 day moving average of $34.31. Kemper has a fifty-two week low of $22.69 and a fifty-two week high of $65.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.18 and a current ratio of 0.18.

Kemper (NYSE:KMPR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The insurance provider reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.81 by ($0.60). The company had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.17 billion. Kemper had a net margin of 0.89% and a return on equity of 4.80%. The business’s revenue was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Kemper will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Kemper Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 18th. Kemper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 206.45%.

About Kemper

Kemper Corporation (NYSE:KMPR) is a diversified insurance holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Formed through the rebranding of Unitrin in 2010, Kemper has established a nationwide presence by offering a broad array of property and casualty insurance products. The company distributes its products through independent agents, brokers and direct-to-consumer channels, serving both individual policyholders and commercial clients.

The personal insurance segment provides coverage for automobiles, homeowners, renters and umbrella lines, while the commercial business focuses on liability, workers’ compensation and specialty property solutions tailored to small and mid-sized enterprises.