Top 5 Stock Picks of Eli Samaha’s Madison Avenue Partners

4. James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR)

Stake Value of Madison Avenue Partners: $60,745,000 

Percentage of Madison Avenue Partners 13F Portfolio: 13.46%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 17

James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR) provides specialty insurance and reinsurance services in the United States. It operates through Excess and Surplus Lines, Specialty Admitted Insurance, and Casualty Reinsurance segments. James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR) was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

On November 12, Keefe Bruyette analyst Meyer Shields upgraded James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR) to Outperform from Market Perform with a price target of $35.

By the end of the third quarter of 2021, 17 hedge funds out of the 867 elite funds being tracked by Insider Monkey held stakes in James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR) worth $206.48 million. This is compared to 15 positions in the prior quarter with stakes worth roughly $182.1 million. It can be observed that the sentiment for the stock is positive.

Bernzott Capital Advisors, an investment management firm, published its “US Small Cap Value Fund” second-quarter 2021 investor letter in which it mentioned James River Group Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:JRVR). Here’s what the firm had to say:

“James River (JRVR): Owns and operates a group of specialty insurance and reinsurance companies. The vast majority of premiums are originated by the company’s US excess and surplus lines market and nearly all of the premiums are casualty insurance and reinsurance. In 2013, JRVR began insuring rideshare business including Uber which grew to a substantial percentage of the total gross written premium by 2019. JRVR ceased underwriting this business line and placed it in runoff at the end of 2019 following disappointing performance and a desire to refocus on its core E&S business. Paid and incurred loss emergence remained elevated in 2020 and after a change to its reserving methodology JRVR significantly strengthened its reserves by $170 million in 1Q which we believe is now adequate to cover future losses. With the commercial auto distraction behind them, we expect investor attention to turn to JRVR’s strong, core business trends and for shares to trade in-line with similar, high-performing peers.”