WHAT THE ANALYSTS SAY
The comments below are excerpted from published stock analyst reports on stocks of local interest. This information should not be used as the primary basis of investment decisions. Stock analysts and brokerage firms may own or actively trade stocks of the companies that they review and recommend.</br></br>Brokerages also may participate in public stock offerings for those companies. Analysts routinely caution that while their information is based on sources they believe to be reliable, they cannot guarantee the accuracy of their information. Nor, they say, can they promise that their recommendations will be profitable.</br></br>"First Colony Corp., with headquarters in Lynchburg, Va., became a public company for the second time in 1992. The company was public until 1982 when it was acquired by Ethyl Corp. Ethyl sold 20 percent of First Colony's shares to the public at a price of $28 in December 1992, and spun off the remaining 80 percent to Ethyl shareholders in 1993. ...</br></br>"We believe First Colony's long-term prospects are attractive. The company has built proprietary market positions in two products: term life insurance marketed through independent general agents, and structured settlement annuities that are purchased chiefly by property-casualty insurers to fund personal injury claims. These are two of the more attractive sectors of the life insurance business.</br></br>"Near term, though, the company's earnings are expected to continue to be essentially flat, because the current level of interest rates is still squeezing profit margins in the structured settlement business.