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Here's Why You Should Hold Palomar (PLMR) in Your Portfolio

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Palomar Holdings, Inc. (PLMR - Free Report) has been gaining momentum on strong premium retention rates, lower catastrophe events, and reduced investment expenses.

Growth Projections

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2021 and 2022 earnings per share is pegged at $2.33 and $3.03, indicating year-over-year increase of nearly 565.7% and 30%, respectively.

Estimate Revision

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 has moved 0.6% north in the past seven days, reflecting analyst optimism.

Earnings Surprise History

Palomar surpassed estimates in three of the last four reported quarters, with the average beat being 5.95%.

Zacks Rank & Price Performance

Palomar currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). In the past year, the stock has rallied 29.4%, outperforming the industry’s increase of 25.8%.

Business Tailwinds

Banking on new business generation with existing partners, strong premium retention rates for existing business, expansion of products’ geographic and distribution footprint and new partnerships, its premium growth is likely to increase in the future. This in turn has enabled sustainable top-line growth. Revenues increased at a two-year (2018-2020) CAGR of 51.9%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company’s 2021 and 2022 revenues is pegged at $233.3 million and $307.9 million, respectively, indicating year-over-year increase of nearly 41.1% and 31.9%.

Given higher average balance of investments, lower investment expenses, higher yield on investment portfolio, investment of cash generated from operations, and proceeds from January and June 2020 stock offerings, investment income is expected to improve despite the current low interest rate environment. The metric increased 63.1% over the last two years (2018-2020).

Given lower catastrophe events and improved loss ratio, we expect combined ratio to improve in the near term.

The company intends to protect earnings and balance sheet with a reinsurance program that mitigates the impact of major events on overall profitability. In October 2020, it announced the procurement of a back of coverage for a $20 million excess of $10 million layer. The layer will remain in place until Jun 1, 2021. This coverage covers all perils, including earthquakes, hurricanes, convective storms and floods, above a qualifying event level of $2 million in ultimate gross loss, recovering on a first dollar basis once above the threshold.

Palomar generated positive cash flows from operations over the last three years (2018 - 2020). Also, its cash and cash equivalents increased at a four-year CAGR (2016-2020) of 36.2%, which indicates the company has sufficient cash reserves to ensure financial stability.

Recently, it authorized a share buyback program, which will allow the company to spend up to $40 million to repurchase its common stock through Mar 31, 2023 in a bid to return more value to investors.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the property and casualty include Alleghany , Cincinnati Financial Corporation (CINF - Free Report) and First American Financial Corporation (FAF - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Alleghany’s bottom line surpassed estimates in two of the last four quarters and missed in the other two, the average beat being 34.08%.

Cincinnati Financial surpassed earnings estimates in two of the last four quarters, with the average surprise being 4.10%.

First American Financial’s bottom line surpassed estimates in three of the last four quarters and missed in one, the average beat being 15.86%.

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