Screening filters — May 27, 2026
All 4 hard criteria must pass for inclusion
ASIC: A year-old E&S insurer trading at 11x with 34% revenue growth
Ategrity Specialty Insurance (NYSE: ASIC) is today's pick — the only stock from the screened pool passing all four hard filters (market cap ~$988M ✅, TTM revenue growth +34% ✅, PEG 0.33–0.41 ✅ single-source caveat, OCF +$168.27M ✅). The article covers its E&S business model and "productionized underwriting" moat, five quarters of accelerating revenue and EPS, Q1 2026's 87.4% combined ratio (top-quartile for P&C insurance), a full valuation table showing 10.5–11x trailing P/E vs. larger E&S peers, three new regional growth strategies, key risks (thin float, 80% insider concentration, sub-one-year public history, PEG single-source), and the Q2 2026 earnings catalyst expected July 29.
May 27, 2026 · 10:00 PM
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Ategrity Specialty Insurance Company Holdings (NYSE: ASIC) is a New York-based excess and surplus (E&S) lines insurer founded in 2017, which completed its NYSE IPO on June 11, 2025 at $17.00 per share. 1 With 203 employees and a single operational focus — writing specialty commercial lines for US small and mid-size businesses — the company is small by insurance-industry standards but has compounded underwriting profit at an unusually fast clip since going public.
At a closing price of $20.14 (May 26, 2026), the stock sits roughly 21% above its IPO price but 20% below its 52-week high of $25.30. 2
Hard filter scorecard
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PEG data note: Finviz shows PEG 0.33 using Forward P/E of 8.06 divided by a 5-year EPS growth estimate of 24.46%. StockAnalysis shows "n/a" and Yahoo Finance shows "--". Using StockAnalysis's higher Forward P/E of 9.97 with the same growth rate yields PEG 0.41 — still well below 1. The PEG filter passes on either calculation, but readers should treat it as single-source.
Business model
ASIC writes E&S lines insurance — the portion of the commercial insurance market that standard admitted carriers decline due to unusual risk profiles. Its products span General Liability, Commercial Property, Management Liability, Miscellaneous Professional Liability, Allied Healthcare, and Architects & Engineers coverage, all distributed through wholesale brokerage and small-business channels. 1
The competitive differentiator management calls "productionized underwriting" — a proprietary data-analytics platform that automates and standardizes the intake-to-bind workflow, keeping headcount low while enabling rapid expansion into new geographies. President Chris Schenk described the approach on the Q1 2026 earnings call:
"We analyze municipal level economic, legal, and policy trends. We look at submission flows and loss experience. We even look at admitted market filings to pinpoint opportunity." 5
More than 50% of ASIC's growth in any given period, according to Schenk, comes from proprietary regional strategies rather than industry-cycle tailwinds. 5
Financial performance
Revenue accelerated sharply through the past five quarters, with YoY growth running from +9% in Q1 2025 to +55% in Q1 2026.
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Q1 2026 results (reported April 29, 2026) showed net income of $25.5M and diluted EPS of $0.51, beating the analyst consensus of $0.41 by 24%. 6 On a trailing four-quarter basis, diluted EPS reached $1.87 (Q2'25 $0.39 + Q3'25 $0.45 + Q4'25 $0.52 + Q1'26 $0.51). 4
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Underwriting quality and balance sheet
Combined ratio of 87.4% in Q1 2026 — down from 90.9% a year earlier — means ASIC earns $0.126 in underwriting profit for every dollar of net premium written before investment income is counted. 6 For context, a combined ratio below 95% is generally considered strong in property and casualty insurance; 87% is top-quartile.
The improvement came from two directions: loss ratio fell 1 percentage point to 58.8% (lower catastrophe losses — 4.0% of net earned premiums vs. 6.2% a year ago), and expense ratio improved 2.5 points to 28.6%. CFO Neelam Patel attributed the expense compression to premiums growing faster than fixed costs: "The overall expense ratio improved 2.5 points to 28.6%. Operating expense was 10.9% of net earned premiums, down 1.4 points year-over-year." 5
Balance sheet is nearly debt-free. As of March 31, 2026: total assets of $1.52B, shareholders' equity of $631M, total debt of $2.53M (effectively zero), net cash of $44.95M, and book value per share of $13.13. 2 Return on equity (TTM) is 17.89%, and the adjusted Q1 2026 annualized ROE was 16.4%. 6
Valuation
At $20.14, ASIC trades at roughly 11x trailing earnings — a discount to larger specialty E&S peers. For comparison, Kinsale Capital (KNSL), the most direct comparable (also an E&S specialist but with a $7.3B market cap), typically commands a trailing P/E in the 20–30x range. The discount likely reflects ASIC's sub-$1B float, less than one year of public trading history, and limited sell-side coverage (5 analysts).
| Metric | ASIC | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Trailing P/E | 10.51–11.04x 3 | Below P&C insurance sector median (~15–20x) |
| Forward P/E | 8.06–9.97x 3 | Implies EPS acceleration priced in |
| P/S (TTM) | 2.06x 2 | Low for a 34%-growth company |
| P/B | 1.53x 2 | Near book value; conservative for ROE of ~18% |
| P/OCF | 5.75x 2 | Cheap on cash generation |
| EV/EBITDA | 7.61x 2 | Inexpensive vs. specialty finance comps |
The valuation discount vs. Kinsale and similarly-sized peers (Skyward Specialty at ~$1.9B, Palomar Holdings at ~$3B) is plausible given ASIC's short track record — but whether the discount narrows depends on the company sustaining its combined ratio and growth through the next several quarters of public reporting. There is no definitive second-source PEG to anchor a precise "cheap vs. fair" conclusion.
Growth catalysts
In Q1 2026, ASIC launched three new regional strategies — Texas (I-10 corridor: Laredo, Waco, El Paso, San Antonio), Florida, and New England (Springfield, MA) — each identified through municipal-level economic and legal trend analysis. 5 Middle-market business (higher-premium accounts) nearly doubled by policy count in the quarter, and emerging verticals include wholesale trade and mixed-use retail.
The company terminated its casualty quota share reinsurance arrangement and moved its net retention ratio into the low 80s percentage range — a concrete signal that management is confident enough in its loss-picking accuracy to retain more of the economics. 5 Fee income from policy fees introduced in 2025 also rose sharply, to $2.2M in Q1 2026 from $0.6M a year earlier, contributing directly to the expense ratio improvement.
AM Best revised ASIC's financial-strength outlook to Positive in December 2025, 7 a rating-agency signal that tends to broaden access to brokers who require minimum carrier ratings before placing business.
Management Q2 2026 guidance: Direct Written Premium growth approximately 20 percentage points above the E&S market, with combined ratio "in the 87s." CEO Justin Cohen added that property growth may accelerate in Q2 specifically. 5
Key risks
Liquidity: The float is 7.56M shares — about 15.7% of total shares outstanding — with average daily volume of roughly 85,500 shares. 2 Even small institutional buying or selling can move the stock materially. Short interest of 5.05% of float (5.46 days to cover) is modest but not negligible given the thin float.
Ownership concentration: Stuart Zimmer, who controls Ategrity through Zimmer Financial Services Group LLC, holds approximately 80% of shares. 3 This concentration limits governance checks and creates overhang risk if Zimmer ever chooses to monetize. On the positive side, all SEC Form 4 filings to date are purchases — zero insider sales since the IPO, including open-market buys by CEO Cohen ($100,938 in October 2025), President Schenk ($49,975 in May 2026), and CFO Patel at IPO. 3
Track record length: ASIC has less than one year of public reporting history. The current combined ratio may partly reflect low catastrophe loss years; a return of California-type wildfire losses (Q1 2025 cat losses were 6.2% of net earned premiums vs. 4.0% in Q1 2026) would pressure the ratio and earnings. 6
Competitive intensity in property E&S: Management explicitly states it avoids large cat-exposed property accounts where pricing competition has been most aggressive: "There's cat property, where there's very aggressive competition. Those tend to be larger accounts also. We are not in that space." 5 This keeps the portfolio focused but limits participation in a large segment of the E&S property market.
Citi downgrade: On February 26, 2026, Citi analyst Matthew Heimermann cut ASIC from Buy to Neutral (Hold) with a $27 price target, citing valuation after the stock's run-up. 8 The remaining four analysts all maintain Buy/Overweight ratings, so this is a minority view — but it represents the one voice arguing the current risk/reward has narrowed.
PEG single-source: As noted above, the sub-1 PEG rests on Finviz data only. If the underlying 5-year EPS growth estimate is revised lower, the PEG could cross above 1 without the stock moving.
Price action and ownership
The stock closed at $20.14 on May 26 and showed a pre-market indication of $20.57 on May 27. 2 Over the trailing year it is down 18.4% — a notable underperformance vs. the S&P 500's +27.7% over the same period — and is off 4.1% year-to-date. The 50-day moving average (~$20.03) and 200-day moving average ($19.71) are in a mild positive cross, and RSI sits at 50.37, neutral. 3
Institutional ownership is 12.43–12.67%, low given the restricted float. 2
Analyst consensus and upcoming catalysts
Four of five covering analysts rate ASIC Overweight or Buy, with price targets clustering tightly at $26–$27 — implying 29–34% upside from the May 26 close of $20.14. 8 Average price target is $26.60. Note that analyst price targets carry a well-documented optimistic bias and should not be treated as return guarantees.
TD Cowen initiated coverage at Buy with a $27 target on May 4, 2026, bringing the analyst count to five. 8 JPMorgan raised its target from $25 to $27 (Overweight) in February 2026. 8
Next earnings: Q2 2026 results are expected around July 29, 2026. 1 Analysts are modeling $0.47 EPS on $127.6M revenue. Given Q1 came in at $0.51 vs. $0.41 consensus, the Q2 beat bar is now higher. The key thing to watch: whether the combined ratio holds "in the 87s" as guided, and whether the new Texas and Florida regional strategies contribute meaningfully to Gross Written Premium growth.
Cover image: AI-generated illustration
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