Unico American Corp. Reports Operating Results (10-Q)

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Nov 10, 2009
Unico American Corp. (UNAM, Financial) filed Quarterly Report for the period ended 2009-09-30.

Unico American Corporation is an insurance holding company which provides property, casualty, health and life insurance and related premium financing through its wholly owned subsidiaries. The insurance company operation is conducted through Crusader Insurance Company, the company's property and casualty insurance company. Unico American Corp. has a market cap of $54.2 million; its shares were traded at around $9.75 with a P/E ratio of 10.5 and P/S ratio of 1.2. The dividend yield of Unico American Corp. stocks is 1.9%. Unico American Corp. had an annual average earning growth of 45.3% over the past 5 years.

Highlight of Business Operations:

Premium written before reinsurance decreased $1,037,938 (10%) to $9,350,531 for the three months ended September 30, 2009, compared to $10,388,469 for the three months ended September 30, 2008. Premium written before reinsurance decreased $397,684 (1%) to $29,874,937 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, compared to $30,272,621 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. The decrease in premium written before reinsurance for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009 as compared to prior year periods is primarily attributed to a loss of customers attributable to the fact that the insurance marketplace continues to be intensely competitive. While the Company attempts to meet such competition with competitive prices, its emphasis is on service, promotion, and distribution. The Company believes that rate adequacy is more important than premium growth and that underwriting profit (net earned premium less losses and loss adjustment expenses and policy acquisition costs) is its primary goal. Nonetheless, Crusader believes that it can continue to grow its sales and profitability by continuing to focus upon three key areas of its operations: (1) product development, (2) improved service to retail brokers, and (3) appointment of captive and independent retail agents.

The Company had a net income of $617,680 for the three months ended September 30, 2009, compared to a net income of $1,445,340 for the three months ended September 30, 2008, a decrease of $827,660 (57%). For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, the Company had a net income of $2,330,990 compared to a net income of $3,186,290 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, a decrease of $855,300 (27%). Total revenues decreased $1,224,720 (11%) to $10,304,412 for the three months and $4,073,563 (11%) to $31,546,083 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, compared to total revenues of $11,529,132 for the three months and $35,619,646 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008.

Premium written (before reinsurance) is a non-GAAP financial measure which is defined, under statutory accounting, as the contractually determined amount charged by the Company to the policyholder for the effective period of the contract based on the expectation of risk, policy benefits, and expenses associated with the coverage provided by the terms of the policies. Premium earned, the most directly comparable GAAP measure, represents the portion of premiums written that is recognized as income in the financial statements for the period presented and earned on a pro-rata basis over the term of the policies. Direct written premium reported on the Company s statutory statement decreased $1,037,938 (10%) and $397,684 (1%), to $9,350,531 and $29,874,937 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2009, compared to $10,388,469 and $30,272,621 for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2008.

Premium earned before reinsurance decreased $478,061 (5%) to $10,088,770 for the three months and $2,334,097 (7%) to $30,185,220 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, compared to $10,566,831 for the three months and $32,519,317 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. The Company writes annual policies and, therefore, earns written premium over the one-year policy term.

Earned ceded premium (excluding provisionally rated ceded premium) increased $136,751 (6%) to $2,336,520 for the three months and $304,139 (5%) to $6,950,632 for the nine months ended September 30, 2009, compared to ceded premium of $2,199,769 in the three months and $6,646,493 for the nine months ended September 30, 2008. The increase in earned ceded premium is primarily a result of changes in the rates charged by Crusader s reinsurers, offset in part by a decrease in direct premium earned. The Company evaluates each of its ceded reinsurance contracts at inception to determine if there is a sufficient risk transfer to allow the contract to be accounted for as reinsurance under current accounting literature. As of September 30, 2009, all such ceded contracts are accounted for as risk transfer reinsurance. The earned ceded premium consists of both premium ceded under the Company s current reinsurance contracts and premium ceded to the Company s provisionally rated reinsurance contracts. Prior to January 1, 1998, the Company s reinsurer charged a provisional rate on exposures up to $500,000 that was subject to adjustment and was based on the amount of losses ceded, limited by a maximum percentage that could be charged. That provisionally rated treaty was cancelled on a runoff basis in 1997.

In 2009 Crusader retained a participation in its excess of loss reinsurance treaties of 20% in its 1st layer ($700,000 in excess of $300,000), 15% in its 2nd layer ($1,000,000 in excess of $1,000,000), and 0% in its property and casualty clash treaty. In 2008 Crusader retained a participation in its excess of loss reinsurance treaties of 20% in its 1st layer ($700,000 in excess of $300,000), 15% in its 2nd layer ($1,000,000 in excess of $1,000,000), and 0% in its property and casualty clash treaty.

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