Stifel Nicolaus Maintains Hold on The Travelers Companies

Stifel Nicolaus is out with its report today on The Travelers Companies TRV, maintaining Hold. In a note to clients, Stifel Nicolaus writes, "Given the losses expected in 2Q11, plus the much lower share repurchase going forward, we are lowering our EPS estimate for 2Q11 and 2011 from $1.57 to a loss of $0.70 and from $6.56 to $4.11 respectively. We are lowering our share buy back from 45 million to 18 million. Due to the lower share buy back assumption we are also lowering our 2012 EPS from $6.16 to $5.75. Although TRV is trading at only 0.99x current BV of $59.51, we think that given the losses in 2Q11, our expectation for single digit ROEs and BV growth for 2011 the stock is fairly valued at these levels. Maintain our Hold rating." Shares of TRV closed Friday at $59.21.