Earnings Call Transcript - UVE Q4 2024

Operator, Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Universal's Fourth Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Arash Soleimani, Chief Strategy Officer. Please go ahead.

Arash Soleimani, Chief Strategy Officer

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. Welcome to our quarterly earnings call. On the call with me today are Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer; and Frank Wilcox, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, please note today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures. Forward-looking statements involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. For more information, please see the press release and Universal's SEC filings, all of which are available on the Investors section of our website and on the SEC's website. A reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in the quarterly press release and can also be found on Universal's website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.

Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Arash. Good morning, everyone. In 2024, we experienced three hurricanes, including Debby, Helene, and Milton, and we're working hard, as we always do, to help our customers restore their lives. We continue to see progress relative to the claims trends in our Florida book and recently filed a modest rate decrease in the state that's directly correlated with the legislative changes made in December 2022. We're already well underway negotiating and placing our 2025 reinsurance program with 92% of our first event catastrophe tower already placed as we stand here today, along with significant additional multiyear capacity secured for the 2026 hurricane season. I'll turn it over to Frank to walk through our financial results.

Frank Wilcox, Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Steve. Good morning. Adjusted diluted earnings per common share was $0.25, down from adjusted diluted earnings per common share of $0.43 in the prior year quarter. The decrease mostly stems from lower underwriting income, partially offset by higher net investment income and commission revenue. Core revenue of $386.4 million was up 5.7% year-over-year, with growth primarily stemming from higher net premiums earned, net investment income and commission revenue. Direct premiums written were $470.9 million, up 8.8% from the prior year quarter, including 0.8% growth in Florida, and 38.4% growth in other states. Overall, growth mostly reflects higher policies in force, higher rates, and inflation adjustments. Direct premiums earned of $519.3 million were up 7.7% year-over-year, reflecting direct premiums written growth over the last 12 months. Net premiums earned were $348.4 million, up 3.9% from the prior year quarter. The increase is primarily attributable to higher direct premiums earned, partially offset by a higher ceded premium ratio. The net combined ratio was 107.9%, up 4.2 points compared to the prior year quarter. The increase reflects higher net loss and expense ratios. The loss ratio was 82.3%, up 0.4 points compared to the prior year quarter. The increase primarily reflects higher weather losses, primarily from Hurricane Milton, partially offset by more favorable prior year reserve development. The net expense ratio was 25.6%, up 3.8 points from 21.8% in the prior year quarter. The increase was primarily driven by higher policy acquisition costs associated with growth outside Florida and higher other operating costs. During the fourth quarter, the company repurchased approximately 370,000 shares at an aggregate cost of $7.7 million. The company's current share repurchase authorization program has $2.6 million remaining. On February 6, 2025, the Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.16 per common share, payable March 14, 2025, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 7, 2025. With that, I'd like to ask the operator to open the line for questions.

Operator, Operator

Our first question will be from Adam McMahon of UVE. Your line is open. One moment for our next question. Our next question will be from Paul Newsome of Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Paul Newsome, Analyst

Good morning. Thanks for the call. Maybe just a couple of modeling questions. Could you talk about the size of the reserve development in the quarter? And maybe talk about the level of cat losses, including a little bit more detail?

Frank Wilcox, Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Good morning, Paul. This is Frank. So, Milton, I'll start with Milton. Milton was a $45 million net retention event. As you know, with our second event, that $66 million in excess of $45 million is covered by third parties. So the captive did not factor into this quarter. Prior year development was down significantly, $45 million down from last year, which was $76 million.

Paul Newsome, Analyst

Great. And then could you provide maybe a little bit more color on the growth efforts and where you're standing and where you think you're seeing the most opportunity? And then I'll just ask the next question. Any thoughts on reinsurance renewals as they come forward later this year?

Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thanks, Paul. I would say from a growth perspective, with our agency relationships and marketing ability that we've demonstrated over the years, we continue to be laser-focused on profitability and writing business where it makes the most sense. We continue to be closed in markets that we don't feel are rate adequate and open in others. The growth in the other states was probably the benefit of our entry into some new markets over the last 12 months. I think as people hear our story and understand how we differentiate ourselves, it results in an opportunity to grow business. And again, it's all focused on profitability and rate adequacy across all markets. I have the great help of our folks in our Minnesota office doing that on a daily and quarterly basis, so it works out quite well. What was the second question, Paul?

Paul Newsome, Analyst

Reinsurance, what are your thoughts prospectively as we get into the important reinsurance business?

Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. We were very pleased to announce that we were 92% already accomplished in our first tower, Paul. We found the market quite receptive. We always try and go out as early as possible to secure the reinsurance that we need and then leave the market to dictate what's available to others. We find that reinsurers like our story, like the presentation, and are interested in getting on board with us as early as possible. We are similarly pleased with the interest in renewing multiyear capability that takes pressure off us. So, we renewed some of that in 2026. We'll release all the details related to cost and other perspectives in our May press release, as we normally do. We're still in the market for some, so we don't want to disclose too much at this point, but we'll provide the full update in May as usual.

Paul Newsome, Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Paul. Have a good day.

Operator, Operator

And I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the conference back to Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer, for closing remarks.

Steve Donaghy, Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Thank you. I'd like to thank all our associates, our consumers, agents, and our stakeholders for their continued support of Universal. And I wish you all a great day. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

And this concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.