Alterra Capital Holdings Limited (ALTE) is an insurance company and a reinsurer. Re-insurers help insurance companies to insure their customers. For example, if a customer wants a lot of insurance, the insurance company may spread the risk by taking working with other insurance companies to jointly insure the client. Alterra serves public organizations, corporations, and other insurance companies. Most of their business is conducted in English speaking countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Bermuda and the United States.

During the past 2 years the stock has traded between $17 and $25. Since January, 2011 and August, the stock was trading between $21 and $23. In August it dropped to 18 and has recently recovered. The stock is selling for $22.40 which is above the 200-day moving average of 21.07 and also above the 50-day moving average of 19.65. These indicate that the stock has recovered from the summer volatility which shook the stock market. The P/E is 16.78 showing that perhaps the stock is a little over priced but not overly so. In today’s market, I find it impressive that Alterra’s stock is keeping level.

Until March 2011, the company was giving a dividend of between 13-15%. In June, after the stock dropped due to market volatility, the dividend also dropped to 2.15%. Since the stock price has recovered it could well be that the dividend will also return to its normal range.

Among the managers are: Sonia Galvis; Walker Rainey; Susan Spivak Bernstein; Peter A. Minton; and Beth DeGroat.

Disclaimer: This article is not authoritative advise. All investment decisions should be based on the investor’s thorough analysis.