Heritage Insurance (HRTG) Moves 10.6% Higher: Will This Strength Last?

Heritage Insurance (HRTG) shares rallied 10.6% in the last trading session to close at $27.83. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 4.5% gain over the past four weeks.

This super-regional U.S. property and casualty insurance holding company is well-positioned to benefit from prudent underwriting execution and rate adequacy initiatives implemented over the past three years.

The insurer stays focused on carefully re-entering profitable markets while deploying capital in a disciplined manner to protect margins. Key priorities include maintaining rate adequacy, using advanced data analytics to manage exposures, and leveraging its operating platform to support sustainable expansion. Heritage expects its in-force policy count to stabilize and gradually increase through 2025 and 2026.

Heritage’s excess and surplus (E&S) segment remains a central growth driver, supported by expansion into additional states. The company’s reinsurance program continues to provide robust protection against hurricanes and severe weather, while cost-efficient enhancements are expected to lower the ceded premium ratio as gross premiums increase. Heritage recently completed the placement of its 2025–2026 indemnity-based catastrophe excess-of-loss reinsurance program.

This property and casualty insurance holding company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.53 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +96.3%. Revenues are expected to be $210.12 million, down 0.8% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Heritage Insurance, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on HRTG going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Heritage Insurance is part of the Zacks Insurance - Property and Casualty industry. Donegal Group (DGICA), another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 3.2% higher at $19.44. DGICA has returned -2.1% in the past month.

For Donegal, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.37. This represents a change of -19.6% from what the company reported a year ago. Donegal currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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