United Fire & Casualty (UFCS)

Trading well below book value....and a good dividend yield to boot.

tons of insider buying at the 17-18 level recently, extremely low PE ratio

I work in the PC sector. This sector makes the banker's sub prime actions look positively brilliant.

No CEO has the guts to call off one of the worst price wars since 1983. No underwriting discipline what so ever. Said same for the feckless AG's and State Regulators.

When the market hardens, just remind the inept AG's and regulators that they could have precluded the nonsense by proper intervention now. Sell the sector now!

A good stock that is to soar when the financial system stabilizes...

Boring insurance business looks like its getting clobbered by the market. Here's hoping they didn't buy any dogfood financial garbage with their float and they come out smelling like a rose in my CAPS portfolio.

My guess is that they will recover from the perfect storm.

5 Star/Small cap/Pays dividend

Right along with the Home Foreclosures, This industry will go down also. Thier last quarter had losses. I see troubles!

life insurance will do well, p&c market is pressured from the pricing side and loss trends.

Waiting for huge jump from my insurance ownings. This has done better than MRH, but MRH may be bought, so we'll see... Both companies are well managed, and in different segments of the industry (MRH is in re-insurance). One of my more risky industries, what with expected increase in severe weather.

United Fire and Casualty Company is engaged in the business of writing property, casualty and life insurance. It conducts business through 917 independent agencies and brokers in 41 states.

The company finished 2006 on a positive note with reported net income of $881 million compared to $9 million for the previous year. The year also saw steps taken to formalize Enterprise Risk Management Systems that seeks to preserve capital and effectively quantify and manage risk.

Good statutory premium growth partially offset by annuity withdrawals helped life insurance business post-good results. To address the evolving needs of the market place it is launching a new universal life product with enhanced disability income raiders to the tune of $2,500. The current interest rate situation is a real cause of concern due to its inability to maintain a profitable interest rate spread. However it has lowered its annuity rates in 2007 to combat the same and has found certain soft market.

Property and casualty business performed well in 2006 and much emphasis would be on writing quality business for 2007. United States witnessed only nine named storms and five hurricanes of minimal damage when compared to the Hurricane Katrina of 2005 resulting to superior performance posted by the company. The company has resorted to reduce its catastrophe exposure in the Gulf coast and Louisiana region without any plans of complete withdrawal. Moreover, it has increased its catastrophe reinsurance program limit from $185.0 million to $200.0 million.

New business and customer retention would be the driving force behind 2007 premium growth. It also plans of venturing into new areas like Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, New Mexico, Texas and Utah with hopes of increasing the average agency size in terms of premium volume. The conservative approach with the strict underwriting norms would propel the company to another profitable year in 2007.

United Fire is still reeling from a variety of natural disasters - particularly Katrina, but recent financials look like they have weathered the storm well (pun intended), and will, over the course of the next 12 to 18 months perform beautifully, provided that the Summer storm season is less traumatic than what Katrina previously caused.

Few follow this one. The P/E at 10.79 is very cheap.

It has great management in a very profitable field.

I have made a lousy 1% on UFCS this last year.(Feb 2007) But I believe it will outperform the market from here forward. The fundamentals are looking better at each quarter and I think that will continue. However another Huge hurricane can change things very quickly. Be aware of the risk in insurance companies.

Like many insurance companies with exposure in Gulf states, UFCS was badly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. This is not a sign of a failed company, simply one which failed to predict the scope of damage which could occur from a type of event which had never before occurred. All this means is that UFCS is currently attractively priced looking ahead at the next few years, especially now that they have data to modify their business model to account for a natural disaster of the scope of Hurricane Katrina.

This was a very solid company without any major financial drama before hurricane Katrina. The fundamentals looked great. If you are not familiar with UFCS you might think they are a dog if you look at recent data. However, it is still the same solid company it was before. In fact, it is probably better situated since I'm sure they have taken steps to avoid situations like Katrina again and have also probably raised their rates. This should be reflected in their reports over the coming years. Note that they have no debt...that puts them a step ahead of competitors in this environment where the fed is currently at it's peak (12/28/06)

Even with the worst natural disaster in 100 years this company has rebounded. It will take a while for it to recoup it's outlays from Katrina et. al., but this company is built to last.

KATRINA oh that hurt but since then rates have increased and investment funds are becoming more plentiful. Watch us grow now.

Worst is behind