UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades Unum Group to Neutral Following YTD Share Rally

Bank of America downgraded Unum Group

from Buy to Neutral and raised the price objective from $27.00 to $29.00. Bank of America analyst Seth Weiss commented, "We are downgrading Unum from Buy to Neutral after the 31% price move on the year-to-date. Unum is the best performing life insurer this year, outperforming the 13% return of S&P life stocks, and the 9% return from the market as a whole. Unum's P/B multiple has improved from under 0.8x to over 1.0x, representing a greater than 30% expansion in the multiple, versus a 15% expansion for the average life name. Unum's business mix gives it less sensitivity to equity markets and low rates, and we believe it deserves to trade at a premium to traditional life providers with a similar ROE. However, we believe this is now largely recognized in the market." Unum Group closed at $27.36 on Monday.