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The insurance industry is in fact boring at times, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Josh Stirling said Jan. 30.
Stirling, who earlier in the month labeled a group of insurers the "utilities" of the financial sector, offered a lengthy defense of that characterization in a note to clients, arguing that investors prefer predictable stocks and that the best insurers are slow and consistent in the way they build value.
The explanation came two days after ACE Ltd. Chairman, President and CEO Evan Greenberg spent part of an earnings call criticizing unnamed analysts for calling the industry boring and...