By Nick Ellis, Editor at The Water Coolest
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock market index made up of the thirty largest publicly traded companies in the United States. Alongside the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, these three indexes are widely used as gauges on how the economy is performing stateside.
But, who really is this Dow Jones everyone is talking about? What’s HIS story? Well, over the next *counts on fingers and toes and back to fingers again* thirty blogs I’m going to walk through each of the thirty companies that make up this index.
Let ‘er rip.
First up is Travelers (stock symbol TRV).
History
Travelers is an insurance company in the financial industry sector. Founded in 1864 by James Batterson in Hartford, Connecticut, it has since expanded its footprint in its 160+ years to Canada, the UK, Ireland, and coast to coast in the US. Travelers provides personal, business, and specialty insurance to its customers and is the only property casualty company in the Dow. Nothing gets me from six to midnight faster than a good property casualty work story.
Financials
Looking at the numbers from its latest Q1 2020 earnings report, the ole big T (no, not that forbidden topic, fellas) reported an earnings per share of $2.62, compared to $2.83 in the same period last year. Additionally, its net written premiums clocked in at $7.23B, which is a 5.4% increase year over year, but fell $70M short of estimates from Wall Street. At least they still get to sponsor a golf tournament once sports are back.
It also had a $68M after-tax charge thanks to the economic conditions from COVID-19.
Most recently
Many auto insurance companies have provided paybacks to their customers since ‘rona boi started wreaking havoc stateside, as people are driving less due to quarantine restrictions. Travelers started providing a 15% auto insurance discount in April, and at the end of May announced it will extend this payback to the end of June.
Will it be extended further? Hard to say. Personally, I’d rather not be shoved back inside for the summer due to a second wave of the virus. The $20 barely covered one of my grubhub delivery charges anyway.
So, that concludes the overview of the 30 for 30 countDOWn of the Dow Jones. Get your popcorn ready, because Dow is up next.
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