RSA share price inches higher ahead of group’s half-year results

Shares in RSA Insurance Group (LON:RSA) have climbed marginally higher in today’s session, outperforming the broader London market, ahead of the company’s first-half update tomorrow. The results will follow the UK’s surprise vote to leave the European union, with the FTSE 100 insurer expected to demonstrate progress toward its 2018 targets.

As of 14:18 BST, RSA’s share price had added 0.20 percent to stand at 497.67p, outperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which has slipped marginally into the red and is currently 0.24 percent worse off at 6,629.13 points. The group’s shares have lost nearly five percent of their value over the past year, but have surged more than 16 percent in the year-to-date.
Analysts at Barclays, which have an ‘overweight’ rating on RSA, commented last week that European insurers’ first-half results might be the time the companies can differentiate themselves, after the sector fell over 20 percent in the aftermath of the Brexit vote.

“The focus will be on the impact, if any, of the decision of the UK to leave the European Union, particularly on capital and solvency ratios,” the bank’s analyst Alan Devlin commented, as quoted by Interactive Investor, adding that RSA and FTSE 100 peer Prudential (LON:PRU) would do well out of the weak pound.
“We expect RSA to demonstrate further tangible progress towards its ambitious 2018 targets,” he pointed out, as quoted by the newswire. The blue-chip group, which attracted a takeover bid by Zurich Insurance about a year ago, aims to close the gap to the best in class players in each of its core markets, UK, Scandinavia and Canada by 2018.
Panmure Gordon, which rates RSA as a ‘hold’, lifted its price target on the stock from 428p to 470p this week. Deutsche Bank also continues to see the FTSE 100 insurer as a ‘hold,’ valuing the shares at 480p.
As of 15:03 BST, Wednesday, 03 August, RSA Insurance Group plc share price is 497.45p.