Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: PartnerRe Ltd., Amerisafe, Inc., Hartford Financial Services Group, Primus Guaranty and PMI Group

A synopsis of today’s Industry Outlook is presented below. The full article can be read at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678.

We remain positive on reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd. (NYSE: PRE) due to its excellent underwriting abilities, strong capitalization, solid ratings and reputation in the market, which will enable it to take advantage of the stronger demand and better pricing being witnessed currently. We also have a Buy rating on Amerisafe, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMSF) in view of its strong capital position and sustained improvement in the results.

Currently we do not have any Sell recommendations on insurance stocks under our coverage, in view of the limited downside potential now. In past couple of months, we upgraded our Sell recommendations on Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE: HIG), Primus Guaranty (NYSE: PRS) and PMI Group (NYSE: PMI), after substantial short returns.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today by visiting http://at.zacks.com/?id=2679.

About Zacks

The performance of the Zacks Rank portfolios shown above for annual and year-to-date periods are the linked monthly total returns (price changes + dividends) of equal weighted hypothetical portfolios, consisting of those stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank, assuming monthly rebalancing and zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios. The hypothetical portfolios were created at the beginning of each month from Jan 1988 forward based on the values of the Zacks Rank available to Zacks' clients before the beginning of each month.

The portfolios created monthly from 1988 through September 2006 exclude ADRS and are comprised of stocks that have the indicated Zacks Rank and were covered by at least two analysts at the time of the stocks inclusion in the portfolio. Starting in October 2006 and going forward, the portfolios are comprised of all stocks with the indicated Zacks Rank and do not exclude ADRs, which is more reflective of the list of stocks that customers will find on the Zacks web sites. 2007 returns are for the period of Jan 1 – Jun 30, 2007. These performance numbers have been audited from 1995 through 2003 by Autschuler Melovan, a division of American Express Financial.

Mark Vickery
312-265-9380
Visit: www.zacks.com