Sean Downes
Analyst · Capital Returns. Your line is open Samir
Thank you, Matt. Before I begin reviewing the quarter, I’d like to tell everyone with a heavy heart that we lost a member of the Universal family last week, Mr. Norman Meier. Norman was a Board of Director of Universal for many years before his retirement in 2013. He was a great mentor to all of us and will be greatly missed. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to his wife and family. I’d like to thank all of you today for joining us as we review our results for the first quarter of 2016. I’d like to begin by providing some highlights from the quarter and then take a moment to review our strategy and growth initiatives. Jon will then discuss our operational highlights and Frank will conclude by discussing our financial results. We are pleased to have delivered another record quarter in the first quarter, which we achieved without withstanding the severe weather events in Florida during the quarter. For the first quarter net income was 25.2 million, an increase of 13% over the first quarter of 2015 and diluted EPS was $0.71, an increase of 14.5% over the first quarter of 2015. These outstanding results which follow on a record year in 2015 highlight the consistent execution of our growth strategy across all aspects of our business and the hard work our employees and our network of approximately 7,800 independent agents, thanks to their efforts. Our subsidiary UPCIC is a largest private homeowners insurance provider in Florida, with an expanding presence in 17 states outside of Florida. In the first quarter of 2016, we wrote our first homeowners policy in Michigan and received certificates of authority booked in New York and in New Jersey, supporting our success is our consistent focus on maintaining disciplined underwriting standards as we seek to grow our business on an entirely organic basis. We have seen a consistent increase in policy count and premium in all states in which we operate over the past two years. A key factor on our success has been our commitment to providing high quality service to our policyholders and independent agency force through our vertically integrated structure. We have continued to invest in our business and areas including underwriting, policy issuance, general administration and claims processing. I’d now like to take a moment to showcase our new Direct-to-Consumer online platform for homeowners insurance which we began beta testing in April. It is now available to consumers in Pennsylvania and we anticipate adding other states in the coming months. Universal Direct is a culmination of many years of work with our great Universal IT professionals who with their help are now letting us tap into the power of the internet to reach customers directly. Customers who have the ability to manage our policies bind, select payment plans and make payments online were also having access to live customer support agents by phone or online for additional assistance as needed. I’m very happy to report today that we have written our first policy using Universal Direct and we anticipate many more to come in the future. Our consistent execution in operational performance has resulted in a robust financial position, allowing the company to continue returning capital to shareholders. In April, the Board declared a dividend of $0.14 per share of common stock. This is in addition to the $0.14 per share dividend announced in January. Our ongoing share repurchase program and dividend payments highlight our continuing track record of prudent capital deployment and commitment to returning value to our shareholders. As we look ahead, we remain focused executing on our core strategy to drive profitable growth. First, we continue to drive high quality service through our vertically integrated structure. Second, we will continue to increase our policies in-force in Florida by seeking profitable and rate adequate and 100% organic growth. Third, we will continue to diversify our revenue base and risk by increasing our policies in-force in states outside of Florida through our geographic expansion strategy and fourth, we will continue to optimize our reinsurance program as our risk profile changes. Our record results for the first quarter of 2016 highlight the merits of our strategy, we remain committed to executing on our plans to drive profitable growth and enhance a value for our shareholders. Finally, since the shorter tack on our common stock last November, we have now reported two full quarters of record results. We’ve had a clean audit of our 2015 financial statements in internal control by our independent auditor and our independent appointing actuary, Towers Watson has completed its most recent review, which included company data through 12/31/2015 and has concluded that the Company’s carried reserves make a reasonable provisions for losses and are within the Actuary’s range of estimates and booked at the Actuary’s best election [ph]. I’m proud of our performance in 2015 and continuing into 2016, everyone at the company more than ever is focused on our goal of driving profitable growth and increasing shareholder value. With that, I’ll now turn it over to Jon.