AXIS Capital Holdings (AXS): First Take: Property Softening & Competitive Casualty Conditions Drive 2Q26 EPS Miss

Research evidence excerpt

AXIS Capital Holdings (AXS): First Take: Property Softening & Competitive Casualty Conditions Drive 2Q26 EPS Miss

Equity Research

28 July 2026 | 8:27PM EDT

AXIS Capital Holdings (AXS): First Take: Property Softening &

Competitive Casualty Conditions Drive 2Q26 EPS Miss

AXS reported operating EPS of $2.84, missing Visible Alpha Consensus Data/GSe of Robert Cox

+1(212)902-9813 | rob.cox@gs.com

$3.26/$3.33. The EPS miss was driven by a 120bps miss on the underlying combined Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

ratio (88.8% vs 87.6% VA Cons) which worsened by 1pp YoY, in addition to a 4% miss Jack Kendall

on NPE (+9% vs +13%). The underlying CR miss was driven fairly equally by +1(212)902-0331Goldman Sachs & Co.| jack.kendall@gs.comLLC

Insurance/Reinsurance and includes a 50bps miss on the overall/Insurance Victoria Gong

underlying loss ratio, with AXS attributing the 1.7pp YoY deterioration in the +1(212)902-7254victoria.gong@gs.com|

insurance ULR (1pp deterioration guided for FY26) to an acceleration in property Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

market softening and the recognition of increasingly competitive conditions in

casualty lines. Overall NPW growth of -1.8% YoY missed Street expectations of

+4.3% with 2.5pp/18pp misses in Insurance/Reinsurance respectively, with the larger

reinsurance miss attributed to continued non-renewals and decreased line sizes in

casualty lines. The expense ratio missed by 70bps driven by higher acquisition

expenses due to business mix shift towards shorter-tail lines of business, while the

G&A ratio of 10.9% continues to be within the ~11% FY26 target. CATs of 5.3pp

missed by 70bps and included $31mn (2.0pp) of Middle East Conflict losses, while

net favorable PYD of 1pp was modestly better than expectations. Buybacks of