American Coastal Insurance Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
May 5, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: American Coastal reported strong underwriting results with net income of $19.3 million and a GAAP combined ratio of 66% (non‑GAAP underlying 68.3%), signaling stable margins despite a softening market.
  • Positive Sentiment: The June 1, 2026 reinsurance renewal produced risk‑adjusted cost decreases, raised the exhaustion point to over $1.6 billion, shifted lower layers to all‑perils, and added more aggregate protection against frequency and severity.
  • Negative Sentiment: A rapidly softening commercial property market and average account rate decreases are reducing gross premiums and could pressure top‑line growth even though retention and policy counts remain largely in line with targets.
  • Positive Sentiment: E&S initiatives started in Q1 (about $6.2M written) with AmRisc participation and management targets ~$70 million written E&S premium for 2026, positioning potential incremental growth in 2027 and beyond.
  • Positive Sentiment: Balance sheet strength supports capital flexibility — cash and investments of $599.4M after a $0.75 special dividend, book value per share up to $6.86, and management estimates $150–$200M of excess capital available for buybacks, dividends, or other uses.
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Earnings Conference Call
American Coastal Insurance Q1 2026
00:00 / 00:00

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Speaker 5

Greetings and welcome to the American Coastal Insurance Corporation's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call and webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow a formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder that this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to your host, Jeremy Hellman, Vice President at The Equity Group and American Coastal Insurance Corporation. Thank you.

Speaker 2

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. American Coastal Insurance Corporation has also made this broadcast available on its website at www.amcoastal.com. A replay will be available for approximately 30 days following the call. Additionally, you can find copies of the latest earnings release and presentation in the investors section of the company's website. Speaking today will be President and Chief Executive Officer, Bennett Bradford Martz, and Chief Financial Officer, Svetlana Castle. On behalf of the company, I'd like to note that statements made during this call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. The company believes these statements are based on reasonable estimates, assumptions, and plans. However, if the estimates, assumptions, or plans underlying the forward-looking statements prove inaccurate, or if other risks or uncertainties arise, actual results could differ materially from those expressed in or implied by the forward-looking statements.

Speaker 2

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially may be found in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Risk Factors section in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and except as required by applicable law, the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. With that, it's my pleasure to turn the call over to Brad Martz. Brad?

Speaker 1

Thank you, and welcome, everyone. During the 1st quarter of 2026, American Coastal continued to be patient and disciplined in navigating a rapidly softening commercial property insurance market. Most of our risk portfolio continues to produce exceptional results, evidenced by our fantastic loss and combined ratios. Average account rate decreases are distorting comparability with gross premiums, but premium production only tells part of the story. Looking deeper reveals American Coastal's account retention was in line with our targets, and our policy count and exposure base actually increased at the end of the current quarter versus the same period a year ago. This is strong evidence that ACIC continues to protect and defend its market leadership position. The key to ACIC's long-term success has been our ability to maintain an adequate margin throughout the cycle.

Speaker 1

Having a strong underlying combined ratio is what ultimately enables us to retain catastrophe risk and produce an acceptable risk-adjusted return on capital over time. Despite losing rate on the front end, we are maintaining margin because loss costs and reinsurance costs are also moving the right direction. I'm pleased to report that our June 1st, 2026 core catastrophe reinsurance program is effectively complete, and we are very pleased with the outcome. The key takeaways are, 1st, we were able to secure risk-adjusted reinsurance cost decreases that were necessary for us to remain both very competitive and profitable. 2nd, we increased our exhaustion point up to over $1.6 billion, expected to exceed the 250-year return time using the most recent version of Verisk's hurricane model, including demand surge and a 10% load for loss adjustment expenses.

Speaker 1

Third, we have moved our lower layers to an all-perils basis that will allow us to non-renew the January first all other perils catastrophe reinsurance program next year while maintaining robust protection against potential non-hurricane CAT events. Lastly, we have more aggregate protection against frequency and severity resulting from a potentially active hurricane season. Pages 11, 12, and 13 of our earnings presentation provide some additional information regarding our reinsurance program renewals. For the core CAT in particular, American Coastal is still evaluating various retention options, and that is expected to be completed very soon. Once finalized, we will disclose more details regarding our hurricane retentions as well as the expected total cost of the 6/1 renewal. I want to personally thank our reinsurance partners for their incredible support and thoughtfulness as we keep moving forward together.

Speaker 1

I'd like to now turn it over to our CFO, Svetlana Castle, for more specifics on our financial results.

Speaker 6

Thank you, Brad, and hello. I'll provide the financial update, but encourage everyone to review the company's press release, earnings and investor presentations, and Form 10-Q for more information regarding our performance. As reflected on page 5 of the earnings presentation, American Coastal demonstrated another strong quarter with net income of $19.3 million. Core income was $19.3 million, a decrease of $1.4 million year-over-year due to decreased net premium earned, partially offset by decreased total expenses. Our combined ratio was 66%, an increase of 1 point from 2025 and in line with our previously stated target. Our non-GAAP underlying combined ratio, which excludes current year catastrophe losses and prior year development, was 68.3% compared to 68.2 in the prior year. We continue to demonstrate underwriting discipline through the market cycle, as indicated by our stable margin.

Speaker 6

As shown on page 6 of our presentation, revenues and expenses remain consistent year-over-year. Other income decreased $900,000 in the current year, driven by non-recurring items in 2025. Net income from continuing operations remained relatively flat, decreasing $400,000 in the current year, inclusive of this non-recurring income. Page 7 shows balance sheet highlights. Cash and investments decreased 7.5% from year-end to $599.4 million, driven by the payment of our previously declared special dividend of $0.75 per share of $36.6 million. The company's liquidity position remains strong. Stockholders' equity increased 4.5% to $331.7 million, driven by our underwriting results. Book value per share is $6.86, a 5.4% increase from year-end 2025.

Speaker 6

The company is well-positioned to navigate the shifting market and capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves. I will now turn it over to Brad Mart for closing remarks.

Speaker 1

Thank you, Svetlana. Today, we estimate we have between $150 million and $200 million of excess capital in our company. That provides us with tremendous strategic and financial flexibility moving forward. Margins remain solid. We are obviously losing some premium on the front end, but with earnings, pre-tax earnings essentially being flat year-over-year, and maintaining a strong combined ratio, we feel like that is representative of the disciplined underwriting we continue to do here at American Coastal Insurance. That concludes our prepared remarks for today. We are happy to field any questions at this time.

Speaker 5

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star followed by two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment please while we poll for questions. Our first question comes from Michael Phillips with Oppenheimer & Co. Please state your question.

Speaker 3

Yeah, thanks. Good evening, everybody. Maybe a first couple questions, Brad, around just the impact, I guess, for modeling purposes of the new reinsurance. How should we think of, I mean, a lot of moving parts here, right? How should we think about, I guess, on a consolidated basis, maybe either just the net to direct, net to gross premiums, this year and maybe even next year, maybe more so this year, as compared to what it was in 2025?

Speaker 1

Mike, thanks for your question. We appreciate that. I would prefer to defer that question until we've finalized our ultimate retention decisions, only because I think that has an impact on ceded premiums as well as, you know, how to model losses in the second half of the year. We are very close. We're hoping to have that finalized before today's call. While the program excess of $50 million is essentially done, we are looking at various cost benefit analyses of reducing likely, you know, second and third event retentions to ensure that we are remaining profitable in a 3-loss scenario. That has been one of our primary goals to make sure we can maintain underwriting profitability even with 3 full retention events in Florida.

Speaker 1

I think it's probably a little early. We can still suggest and refer you to the full year guidance that remains unchanged at this time. I think that is, you know, the best estimates we can provide at this moment. After the second quarter, you know, it is possible we'll want to revisit that guidance. Not at this time.

Speaker 3

Okay, good. I guess maybe I was going to ask this later, but since you mentioned it, the first quarter results so far don't give any reason to change the revenue guidance that you gave earlier?

Speaker 1

No. Second quarter is our strongest premium production quarter-

Speaker 3

Yeah

Speaker 1

of the year. It has, you know, the potential to, you know, essentially make or break that guidance. I want to be cautious in potentially using to, you know, the first three months of the year to revise our estimate for the full year. For right now, we're still striving for those estimates on a full year basis. It will depend on, you know, how strong the second quarter is.

Speaker 3

Okay. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Thanks, Brad. Can you I guess remind where you see the opportunities for the E&S carrier? I think it's mainly just if I'm right here, Texas and Florida for now. Is that right? Then kind of just longer term, just thoughts on how you see that expanding.

Speaker 1

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we finally assumed some E&S business in the first quarter. It's about $6.2 million of E&S premium that came in through our participation on the AmRisc E&S portfolio, which we were excited about. That does still track with our initial full year guidance, although, you know, anything could happen. It could certainly come in above that or below that. Where we're seeing opportunities for Skyway is really going to be dependent on market conditions. We're evaluating all classes of commercial property very, very carefully. Our core products in both condominiums, apartments, and assisted living facilities are where we're going to lead. We're gonna continue to focus on properties with risk characteristics that are very similar to our portfolio in Florida.

Speaker 1

We are also working with various fronting partners to stand up a fronted AM Best rated option for use in Florida and outside of Florida for Skyway to have additional underwriting capacity that will likely produce some premium by the fourth quarter. We're still in the process of setting that up. Hope to have it operational in the third quarter with premium production starting in the fourth quarter. Not a huge uplift from E&S via Skyway Underwriters in 2026. It's more of a 2027 initiative. I think most of our E&S premium, you know, somewhere between $50 million and $80 million is going to be coming from the assumption of and co-participation on the AmRisc portfolio for 2026.

Speaker 3

Yeah, perfect. Thank you. That's very helpful. Thanks, Brad. Maybe just lastly on the loss or expense side. Your G&A expense kind of averages around $10 million or $11 million a quarter. Any reason to think that could change any time over the next year or so, either direction?

Speaker 1

No, it's been relatively stable. Obviously, we had some non-recurring benefits in the prior year that are distorting the expense ratio in the current period. As far as our fixed costs, we've got a very good handle on those and, you know, have a strategy to continue to try and do more with less. You know, we're gaining some operating efficiencies through various uses of technology and AI tools, which we're super excited about. It's very premature to actually get into any real details. You know, our mantra, one of our strategic objectives for this year was to operationalize AI, and we're off to a very good start.

Speaker 3

Okay. No, awesome. Thanks, and congrats on those strong margins. Appreciate your time.

Speaker 1

You're welcome.

Speaker 5

Your next question comes from Mitchell Rubin with Raymond James. Please state your question.

Speaker 4

Hey, good afternoon, guys. We've heard some market rhetoric around increasing competition in Florida. Can you provide some color on the trends you're seeing with retention levels on renewals and new business?

Speaker 1

Yeah. Retention, historically in our business, Mitch, has been between, you know, 75% and 95%. That's where we target account retention, with kind of the sweet spot being in the low to mid-80s. It was slightly below that in the first quarter, but well within our targeted range. We saw it bounce back pretty nicely in March after, you know, we made a voluntary decision to walk away from a few large, very large accounts in January, where we did see some, what I would consider to be reckless competition come in and significantly undercut, both on price and on deductible, which was, you know, just not consistent with how we underwrite.

Speaker 1

We're gonna be disciplined in those situations and cede market share to those willing to burn their way into the market. It's rare that that's happening. It's not a daily occurrence. I would say competition and capacity is obviously robust, but most of that is healthy competition, and we're doing a good job of defending our market leadership position, as evidenced by the fact that, you know, our policy count and our exposure base is relatively stable. It is tough flooding out there, no question about it. What we feel very good about our ability to compete moving forward given the job we've done on the reinsurance renewal. The risk-adjusted cost decreases there.

Speaker 1

Again, I'm gonna refrain from giving specific numbers today, but right now they are exceeding our average year-over-year average premium changes. With reinsurance costs in line or better than what we're losing on the front end with our rates, it will continue to allow us to compete very aggressively and maintain our best accounts.

Speaker 4

Well, thank you for the color there. That's very helpful. Sticking with the reinsurance renewal, can you walk us through some of the more meaningful structural changes in the renewal, relative to last year's program?

Speaker 1

Yeah, I'll reiterate them again for you in case you wanna dive into more details. Just, you know, stop me and let me know. We have more overall limit. That's number one. Introducing some new cascading layers that, you know, work like a top and drop where it's you've got a lot more vertical limit for a first event, yet a more aggregate limit for second and subsequent events, assuming those layers, you know, are not eroded. The increased protection for both frequency and severity is extending return times, you know, even higher year-over-year. We feel very good about it, whether you're looking at it from a first event, a second, or a third event perspective.

Speaker 1

Some more robust coverage, at a very attractive risk-adjusted rate decrease. Combined with, I guess, the third-biggest change is the movement to an all perils tower away from a hurricane-only tower. Historically, we had separated the non-hurricane and the hurricane risk because of the noise and the volatility associated with our old discontinued personal lines business. We just have exceptional loss experience when it comes to the SCS, severe convective storm stuff. It made perfect sense for us to think about including the lower layers, placing the lower layers on an all perils basis.

Speaker 1

You know, that way that would save us approximately $4 million by non-renewing the layers excess of $50 million on the AOP CAT renewal at 1/1. You know, we'll certainly obviously consider various options within our retention, you know, with that renewal because there's still some additional spend there. In total, that program was about $11 million, if I remember correctly. There's still significant spend there to manage the potential frequency and severity of non-hurricane CAT. We're trying to drive simplicity and standardization across the board with this risk transfer approach. We got a lot more overall limit out of our gross CAT quota share as well.

Speaker 1

While we're maintaining the 15% cession rate with, you know, earned premiums going down in this part of the cycle, we are actually, you know, technically shrinking that reinsurance spend via the quota share. We view that as a positive. We're very happy with where we landed this year.

Speaker 4

That was great. Really helpful. Thanks for the answers.

Speaker 5

Your next question comes from Bill DeZellem with Titan Capital. Please state your question.

Speaker 7

Thank you. Would you please go into a bit more detail on the new initiatives that you're doing on the E&S front and the timing on when that may lead to total American Coastal growth?

Speaker 1

Sure. Hi, Bill. Reiterating timing, obviously we got E&S kicked off in the month of March with the initial $6.2 million of written. Full year is still, like I said, somewhere going. It's going to depend on how much capacity AmRisc can put to work, right? We've given them a certain amount of capacity. They're fighting hard to win and write quality business. You know, I would expect that number's going to add about $70 million in E&S premium to our company this year that we did not have last year. That's solid new growth coming from that segment.

Speaker 1

For 2027 and beyond, I think it's gonna look very similar to what we've done with apartments, where you could expect, you know, $20 million-$30 million annually of new business, through a thoughtful, sort of very disciplined approach to finding niches where we know how to compete, we know how we're gonna win, and we can earn an attractive return on capital. Some of that is obviously market dependent and, you know, what's going on with terms and conditions, for sure. You know, if market changes, maybe we can do a lot more, a lot faster.

Speaker 1

In giving current market conditions and our outlook for where markets are headed, especially if this is a relatively benign hurricane season, which is forecast, given the current prediction for a super El Niño year, you know, it could be slower for us to attract and write new business.

Speaker 7

That may be the first time that I've ever heard a quasi, a plea for more hurricanes.

Speaker 1

I wouldn't go that far. We don't wish that on anybody. Yeah, I mean, it would chase off some of the capacity that's out there doing irresponsible things and maybe firm up pricing a little bit, which would give us, you know, some more comfort and margin for error as we branch into the new territories with our core products. We're very confident in our ability to compete both in and outside of Florida, but we have underwriting experience in places like Texas and South Carolina with commercial residential. We've been there before. We've got a good game plan. Yeah, sometimes, you know, you just gotta be patient with the insurance cycle.

Speaker 7

Thanks, Brad. All joking aside, I want to make sure I'm getting an apples to apples comparison here. This quarter you had $65 million of net earned premiums. When you're talking about the $70 million of E&S premium with AmRisc this year, that would essentially be equivalent to that number or set enough to add quarter, the equivalent of 1 additional quarter to your business revenue.

Speaker 1

Not quite because I was mixing and matching written and earned a little bit here. I was talking about written with the $70 million target currently. Again, which could go up, which could go down, that's written. On an earn basis, I would expect about half of that to earn this year.

Speaker 7

Thank you for the clarification. Very good point. Assuming that you had 100% retention or additional new business next year, both of which are faulty assumptions, but if that were the case, statement would hold for 2027, that would essentially be the equivalent of an additional quarter.

Speaker 1

I think that's fair. I do think, again, with current assumption of continued soft market conditions, you know, we can expect, you know, reinsurance costs to be ultimately very competitive. We still have tools in our arsenal to manage the ceded premium that would potentially allow for even more growth on a net premium earn basis after reinsurance spend. Depending on our risk appetite and what's going on with the cost of reinsurance capital, I do think the outlook gets even better given some of those elements that are within our control. We'll have to wait and see. Yes, ideally, we'd like to be growing revenues and earnings at all times. That's ideal.

Speaker 1

That's just not something, you know We're not gonna be focused on growing top line in a market that where you won't like the results if we do it.

Speaker 7

No, that's, I really appreciate both that and the perspective of how those premiums are ultimately flowing in and the implications that could have. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1

You are welcome.

Speaker 5

Thank you. Your next question comes from Akshay Fola, private investor. Please go ahead.

Operator

Hello, Brad. I had a question on capital allocation. You mentioned $200 million of having $200 million of excess capital, and we only see about $5 million of stock purchases in Q1. I understand there's probably an additional $20 million of repurchases authorized that could be done. Can you please expand on the reasoning for, you know, leaving behind only doing $5 million of stock purchases with $200 million of excess capital? Thank you.

Speaker 1

Yes. Thanks for your question. It's a good one. We certainly have excess capital in the system, between our statutory ordinary dividend capacity, the amount of equity and capital we've amassed in our captives as well as the unregulated unrestricted cash we have on hand. We're being a little cautious about share repurchase primarily because of the fact that it would further reduce the outstanding float, which and the liquidity in our stock. I think that's one we really would prefer to maintain for severe potential dislocation in the price. The stock is still very cheap and by almost any measure, it is attractive to us.

Speaker 1

We could see some additional use of that board authorization in the second half of the year. I definitely don't wanna rule that out, but we also have to be in an open trading window. Open the window for us has been closed and is generally closed half of every quarter. There's that constraint as well. I think share buybacks are definitely on the table for discussion as is debt reduction and special dividends to shareholders. A lot of that will depend on timing, what's going on with interest rates, what happens with, you know, our results for the full year. We'll be mindful and watch that stock price.

Speaker 1

If it gets too cheap, you know, that's something we will give serious consideration to.

Operator

Thank you. Just to like comment on that. You know, like, looking at where the share price is traded, it's kind of like the chicken or the egg problem. Once you know the market gets clarity on the next hard market or rates increasing or the actual growth trajectory of the company, the price tends to go up. Doing buyback during those times, you know, it just increases your cost of capital. Whereas now we have uncertainty on the rates. The share price for that reason is trading or one of the reasons why it's trading where it is. Like, you have the best opportunity by doing these terms.

Operator

You know, like, it's that balance, I'm sure which you understand. Yeah. Just wanted to kind of comment on that. Thank you. Thank you for your time.

Speaker 1

Yeah. All fair points. You're welcome. Thank you.

Speaker 5

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that was our last question for today. With that, we will conclude today's call, and all parties may disconnect. Thank you and have a good day.

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