Slide Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLDE) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Key Points

• Short interest jumped 29.3% in March to 6,566,186 shares (about 5.3% of shares sold short), with a short-interest ratio of 2.3 days based on average daily volume.
• CEO Bruce Lucas sold 273,702 shares on April 9 for roughly $4.96 million, and insiders have sold about 2,700,137 shares worth $49.3 million over the past 90 days.
• Fundamentals and analyst view: Slide beat quarterly EPS estimates ($1.23 vs. $0.87) on $347.0M revenue, and the stock carries a MarketBeat consensus "Buy" rating with a $24.40 price target amid several analyst upgrades.

Slide Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SLDE - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 6,566,186 shares, an increase of 29.3% from the March 15th total of 5,076,321 shares. Currently, 5.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,813,862 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Insider Transactions at Slide Insurance

In related news, CEO Bruce Lucas sold 273,702 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.11, for a total transaction of $4,956,743.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 37,620,933 shares in the company, valued at $681,315,096.63. This represents a 0.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,700,137 shares of company stock worth $49,298,953.

Institutional Trading of Slide Insurance

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of SLDE. Comerica Bank increased its stake in Slide Insurance by 3,462.2% during the 4th quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,318 shares of the company's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,281 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC bought a new position in shares of Slide Insurance during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Slide Insurance during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Slide Insurance during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd grew its stake in shares of Slide Insurance by 4,839.2% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 2,519 shares of the company's stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 2,468 shares in the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on SLDE. Texas Capital raised Slide Insurance to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Slide Insurance from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen cut Slide Insurance from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, April 11th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Slide Insurance from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Slide Insurance in a report on Friday, December 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.40.

Slide Insurance Stock Performance

Shares of SLDE stock opened at $18.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $2.29 billion and a PE ratio of 7.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $17.81 and a 200-day moving average of $17.15. Slide Insurance has a one year low of $12.53 and a one year high of $25.90.

Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $347.01 million during the quarter.

About Slide Insurance

Launched in 2021, we are a technology enabled, fast-growing, coastal specialty insurer. We focus on profitable underwriting of single family and condominium policies in the property and casualty (“P&C”) industry in coastal states along the Atlantic seaboard through our insurance subsidiary, Slide Insurance Company (“SIC”). We utilize our differentiated technology and data-driven approach to focus on market opportunities that are underserved by other insurance companies. We acquire policies both from inorganic block acquisitions and subsequent renewals, as well as new business sales through a combination of independent agents and our direct-to-consumer(“DTC”) channel, through which we sell our insurance products directly to end consumers, without the use of retailers, brokers, agents or other intermediaries.

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