Slide Insurance Holdings is a Tampa coastal homeowners carrier that spent its first public year converting Florida residual-market backlog into earned premium, and the second-quarter print shows that conversion still running hotter than new writings. Gross writings rose at a mid-teens pace. Earned premium and net income nearly doubled the year-ago quarter. The gap between writings and earnings is leftover Citizens takeout premium rolling through the income statement, not a sudden boom in new Florida risk. The investment debate is whether that leftover earning power is a durable franchise or a weather-lucky hangover from a quiet storm season.
The underwriting ratio printed in the high fifties, almost ten points better than last year, because the loss ratio fell into the low thirties on benign weather. That is the same company that printed a seventy-two percent combined ratio in twenty twenty four when three named storms hit the book. Management also started returning cash. The company retired about three million shares in the quarter at just under $18. The board then declared a first common dividend of seven cents. Founders who beneficially own nearly half the stock do not usually start a dividend and buy back paper unless they believe surplus exceeds what the catastrophe tower requires.
Full-year writings guidance still sits between $1.85 billion and $1.95 billion. Net income guidance remains $455 million to $470 million. Versus last year's writings book, that is mid-single-digit growth after a year of Citizens-driven surge. Shares recently changed hands near $25. The tape is paying about six times that guided profit, which is the price of a franchise the market still treats as one landfall away from a mean-reverting year. Whether out-of-state writings and voluntary new business replace the takeout engine before the next storm year is the question the second half has to answer.