Kingstone

Kingstone just raised its quarterly dividend by 20%, to 6 cents a share from 5 cents, payable August 26, 2026. That is the first increase since the payout was reinstated in July 2025. It lands right after the board approved buying back up to 1,000,000 shares over the next two years, so cash is flowing back to owners two different ways.

The California expansion is no longer a plan on paper. Kingstone is now writing homeowners coverage there on a non admitted basis, opening a market far larger than New York at a moment when big national carriers have retreated. Revenue has grown roughly 38.5% over the past year, and Kingstone finished 2025 as the 11th largest homeowners writer in New York.

Almost all of Kingstone's premium still comes from a single state. Being the 11th largest home insurer in New York is a nice position until one brutal hurricane or winter storm season rolls through. In insurance, a few bad weeks of weather can erase a lot of good quarters, and this company has very little geographic cushion.

California means wildfire risk, a peril Kingstone has never underwritten before, and it is entering on a non admitted basis where pricing mistakes show up fast. Net profit margins run near 13.9%, healthy but not bulletproof. At a market value around 300 million dollars, this is a small company, so the stock can swing hard on a single bad season.