D.A. Davidson & CO. Buys New Position in Kemper Corporation $KMPR

D.A. Davidson & CO. bought a new stake in Kemper Corporation (NYSE:KMPR) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 21,881 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of KMPR. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Kemper by 40.1% during the third 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 raised its position in shares of Kemper by 12.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,776,543 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $143,131,000 after buying an additional 316,216 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Kemper by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,472,276 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $100,227,000 after buying an additional 140,539 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kemper by 0.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,212,025 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $142,764,000 after buying an additional 10,213 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Kemper by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,164,410 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $47,205,000 after acquiring an additional 48,750 shares during the last quarter. 86.23% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on KMPR. 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 reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Kemper in a research note on Friday, June 12th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Kemper from $48.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Kemper from $35.00 to $28.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $51.75.

Kemper Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of KMPR stock opened at $27.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.69 and a beta of 1.04. Kemper Corporation has a 1-year low of $22.69 and a 1-year high of $62.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.18 and a quick ratio of 0.18. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.17.

Kemper (NYSE:KMPR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The insurance provider reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by ($0.60). Kemper had a net margin of 0.89% and a return on equity of 4.80%. The company had revenue of $1.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.17 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.65 earnings per share. Kemper’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Kemper Corporation will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Kemper Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th were issued a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 18th. Kemper’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.