Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) to Repurchase $20 million in Outstanding Stock

Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, October 29th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buy back $20 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the insurance provider to reacquire up to 1.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on UVE shares. Zacks Research raised shares of Universal Insurance from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 22nd. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Universal Insurance from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Weiss Ratings raised Universal Insurance from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (a+)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Universal Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Universal Insurance has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $51.00.

Universal Insurance Stock Up 1.9%

NYSE UVE opened at $48.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company has a market capitalization of $1.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.06 and a beta of 0.69. Universal Insurance has a one year low of $28.32 and a one year high of $50.75. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $44.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.80.

Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The insurance provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.57 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $444.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $601.67 million. Universal Insurance had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 38.15%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Universal Insurance will post 6.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Universal Insurance news, Chairman Sean Downes sold 20,000 shares of Universal Insurance stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.98, for a total value of $879,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 1,084,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $47,702,687.10. This trade represents a 1.81% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 15.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Universal Insurance

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc (NYSE: UVE) is an insurance holding company that provides property and casualty insurance through its subsidiaries. Its primary business is personal residential insurance, with products designed to protect homeowners and other residential property owners against risks such as wind, fire, theft and other covered losses.

The company’s offerings include homeowners, condominium unit owners, renters and dwelling fire insurance, along with related residential property coverage.