Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE) Reaches New 52-Week High After Strong Earnings

Slide Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLDE)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday following a stronger than expected earnings report. The company traded as high as $23.00 and last traded at $22.8150, with a volume of 696767 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $21.40.

The company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $386.82 million for the quarter. Slide Insurance had a return on equity of 48.38% and a net margin of 38.86%.

Slide Insurance Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%.

Slide Insurance declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the company to reacquire up to 4.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $20.00 price objective (down from $23.00) on shares of Slide Insurance in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Slide Insurance from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Zacks Research cut Slide Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Barclays increased their price target on Slide Insurance from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Slide Insurance in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert Gries, Jr. sold 84,636 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.34, for a total value of $1,721,496.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,777,357 shares in the company, valued at $36,151,441.38. This trade represents a 4.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Bruce Lucas sold 455,000 shares of Slide Insurance stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.06, for a total value of $8,672,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 35,429,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $675,279,884.90. This represents a 1.27% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 2,628,743 shares of company stock valued at $49,342,172 in the last 90 days. 50.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Slide Insurance

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Comerica Bank grew its position in shares of Slide Insurance by 3,462.2% in the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,318 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,281 shares during the period. CWM LLC acquired a new position in shares of Slide Insurance during the 4th quarter worth about $35,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Slide Insurance in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of Slide Insurance in the 1st quarter valued at about $42,000. Finally, Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new stake in Slide Insurance in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000.

Slide Insurance Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.56 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.22. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.85 and its 200-day moving average is $18.16.

About Slide Insurance

Launched in 2021, we are a technology enabled, fast-growing, coastal specialty insurer. We focus on profitable underwriting of single family and condominium policies in the property and casualty (“P&C”) industry in coastal states along the Atlantic seaboard through our insurance subsidiary, Slide Insurance Company (“SIC”). We utilize our differentiated technology and data-driven approach to focus on market opportunities that are underserved by other insurance companies. We acquire policies both from inorganic block acquisitions and subsequent renewals, as well as new business sales through a combination of independent agents and our direct-to-consumer(“DTC”) channel, through which we sell our insurance products directly to end consumers, without the use of retailers, brokers, agents or other intermediaries.