Wall Street Zen Downgrades Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE) to Hold

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE) from a "buy" to a "hold," though the stock still carries a consensus analyst rating of "Buy" with a consensus target price of $24.40.
• Slide reported a strong quarter with EPS of $1.23 beating estimates of $0.87, and trades at a low valuation (P/E ~6.98) with a $2.24 billion market cap.
• Insiders have been selling recently—2,104,690 shares worth about $38.5 million were sold in the past three months (notably on April 6 under Rule 10b5-1)—even as several institutional investors materially increased their positions.

Slide Insurance (NASDAQ:SLDE - Get Free Report) was downgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Slide Insurance from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Slide Insurance from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Barclays boosted their price target on Slide Insurance from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on Slide Insurance from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Slide Insurance in a research report on Friday, December 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.40.

Slide Insurance Stock Performance

Slide Insurance stock opened at $18.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.24 billion and a P/E ratio of 6.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $17.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.06. Slide Insurance has a 52 week low of $12.53 and a 52 week high of $25.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

Insider Transactions at Slide Insurance

In other Slide Insurance news, insider Matthew Paul Larson sold 11,250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.00, for a total transaction of $202,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 11,250 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $202,500. The trade was a 50.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Robert Gries, Jr. sold 28,212 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.06, for a total value of $509,508.72. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,946,629 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $35,156,119.74. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 2,104,690 shares of company stock worth $38,533,588 in the last three months.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Slide Insurance

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Slide Insurance by 49.4% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,483,180 shares of the company's stock worth $70,767,000 after buying an additional 1,483,180 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Slide Insurance by 14.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,761,819 shares of the company's stock worth $53,800,000 after buying an additional 354,321 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Slide Insurance by 27.6% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,758,215 shares of the company's stock worth $34,250,000 after buying an additional 380,161 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Slide Insurance in the second quarter worth about $33,063,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Slide Insurance by 50.3% in the fourth quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP now owns 986,543 shares of the company's stock worth $19,218,000 after buying an additional 330,165 shares during the period.

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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