UVE -- 1/18/09 thoughts:
UVE is a Florida Hurricane Insurer making money hand over fist since the 2005 Hurricane season shot rates up massively, drove out fearful competitors, and the lack of hurricanes since has been a major windfall for this once tiny company trading for as little as .04 to its current level.
Historical PE of under 3, trades for near book value, pays a massive dividend yield, and announced a share buybacks this year one of which they completed in 2 months. Profitability has decreased recently due to mnadatory rate reductions from the state of Florida plus some tropical storm damage claims from the summer. In order to get top and bottom line growth accelerating again, they recently just got licensed to expand into North Carolina, South Carolina, Hawaii, as well as additional high-end markets in Florida.
Latest dividend announcement is for .10/share with a record date of February 12 (must own the stock Feb's 9th's close). Biggest risk with UVE is, of course, a devestating hurricane. They do have re-insurance which insures UVE against large claims and keeps them alive in that event, however, smaller claims could hurt their results during the corresponding quarter.
