This insurance company beat analysts’ estimates by twenty cents last quarter, posting earnings per share of $0.66. The shares are rated #1-Buy by Zacks Equity Research, with double-digit growth forecasted for this year.
Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. (HRTG)
from The Oberweis Report
Heritage Insurance Holdings, Inc. (HRTG) is a property and casualty insurance holding company that provides personal and commercial residential insurance, headquartered in Clearwater, Florida. Through its subsidiary, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company (“Heritage P&C”), the company provides personal residential insurance for single-family homeowners and condominium owners, rental property insurance and commercial residential insurance in the state of Florida.
The company is vertically integrated and controls/manages substantially all aspects of insurance underwriting, actuarial analysis, distribution and claims processing and adjusting. Heritage is led by an experienced senior management team with an average of 28 years of insurance industry experience.
The company began operations in August 2012, and in December 2012 began selectively assuming policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (“Citizens”), a Florida state-supported insurer, through participation in a legislatively established “depopulation program” designed to reduce the state’s risk exposure by encouraging private companies to assume insurance policies from Citizens. Heritage also writes policies outside the Citizens depopulation program, which are referred to as voluntary policies.
Heritage P&C is currently rated “A” (“Exceptional”) by Demotech, Inc., a rating agency specializing in evaluating the financial stability of insurers. The company completed its initial public offering (“IPO”) on May 29, 2014, selling an aggregate of 6,900,000 shares of its common stock at $11.00 per share. In Heritage’s latest reported fourth quarter, sales increased approximately 158% to $85.4 million from $33.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Heritage reported earnings per share of $.66 in the latest reported fourth quarter versus $.05 in the same quarter of last year.
Jim Oberweis, CFA, The Oberweis Report, www.oberweisreport.com, 800-323-6166, April 2015