KINS I own her. Quarter was about where I expected, I mean a bit better than the guide they gave just a couple of weeks ago, but thats b/c they had some prior year positive development. But their guidance is more than solid, upped quite a bit from what they gave last quarter.. around 50% increase on the low end, and 22% on the high end. The March quarter is seasonally their worst quarter, December second worst, but note that they have had very bad June and Sept qtrs in recent years. If they can make their mid guidance of .92/share which I think is very attainable, then that would mean about .80/share in earnings over the next three quarters, of which in general the following two are seasonally stronger. And it would take too many things going right to make the higher part of their guidance. So could be some pretty big numbers coming up.
KINS was a mess for a while.. the newish CEO and team came in and has done a pretty good job... I mean some of it is luck in the Inusrance biz.. but they modernized the company, got it heading forward, cutting costs etc. Then they gave some focus to the company, particularly geographically, exiting non-core areas.. most notably NJ where they were losing a ton (and still are, but very little left).... now mostly NY only. They also raised rates.
One thing to note is they filed an S-3 last month. Not they hadn't had one effective for a while... maybe since '20 or '21. And most every insurance company has one out there just in case. So I'm not sure whether they intend to do anything short term. You'd hope with their guide that they'd wait for higher prices (all P&C Insurers raise cash from time to time), but who knows. I don't think they actually need a lot more cash unless they want to expand, and thats not what they want now. They just want to increase market share.
I don't think she deserves a big multiple. But .92/share at a seven multiple gets you to $6.40. Although thats is more of a stretch looking at it from a price the price to book side.
Anyway, I am not sure where she goes tomorrow, we'll see where she settles. But barring some wacky weather or other negative (or stock sale cash).. seems like they will have some real nice eps quarters coming up.
best.
