Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Invests $798,000 in Universal Insurance Holdings Inc $UVE

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in Universal Insurance Holdings Inc (NYSE:UVE) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 19,300 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $798,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in UVE. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Universal Insurance during the second quarter valued at approximately $111,007,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Universal Insurance by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,007,725 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $67,861,000 after buying an additional 54,004 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Universal Insurance by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 815,484 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $27,566,000 after buying an additional 134,805 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Universal Insurance by 9.4% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 805,199 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $19,083,000 after buying an additional 69,289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Donald Smith & CO. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Universal Insurance in the second quarter valued at $29,849,000. 66.61% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

UVE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Universal Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Universal Insurance from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Universal Insurance from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Universal Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

Universal Insurance Stock Performance

Shares of UVE opened at $43.63 on Wednesday. Universal Insurance Holdings Inc has a one year low of $24.09 and a one year high of $45.15. The company has a 50-day moving average of $42.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.12. The stock has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.76 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 0.57 and a quick ratio of 0.57.

Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $419.38 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $614.62 million. Universal Insurance had a net margin of 13.49% and a return on equity of 37.67%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Universal Insurance Holdings Inc will post 4.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Universal Insurance Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 31st were given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. Universal Insurance’s payout ratio is presently 8.44%.

Insider Transactions at Universal Insurance

In other Universal Insurance news, Chairman Sean P. Downes sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.27, for a total transaction of $885,400.00. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 1,104,645 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $48,902,634.15. The trade was a 1.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 15.00% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Universal Insurance Company Profile

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc (NYSE: UVE) is a property and casualty insurance holding company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The company underwrites homeowners and other residential property insurance products to protect against natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, windstorms and fires. It distributes policies primarily through a network of independent agents and brokers, offering coverage for primary residences, secondary homes, condominiums, vacant dwellings and rental properties across its service territory.

In addition to personal lines, Universal provides commercial property and casualty insurance tailored to small businesses and institutional clients.