Q3 2024 Hippo Holdings Inc Earnings Call
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Maxine: Hello and welcome to the Hippo Holdings third quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Maxine and I'll be coordinating the call today.
Maxine: If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad.
Speaker Change: I will now hand you over to Mark Olson, Director of Communications, to begin. Mark, please go ahead when you are ready.
Mark Olson: Thank you, operator. Good morning and thank you for joining HIPPO's 2024 third quarter earnings call. Earlier today, HIPPO issued a shareholder letter announcing its Q3 results, which is available at investors.hippo.com.
Speaker Change: Leading today's discussion will be HIPAA President and Chief Executive Officer Rick McCathron and Chief Financial Officer Stuart Ellis. Following management's prepared remarks, we will open up the call to questions.
Speaker Change: Before we begin, we would like to remind you that our discussion will contain predictions, expectations, forward-looking statements, and other information about our business that are based on management's current expectations as of the date of this presentation.
Speaker Change: Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, HIPAA's expectations or predictions of financial and business performance and conditions and competitive and industry outlook.
Speaker Change: Forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from historical results and or from our forecast.
Speaker Change: including those set forth in HIPAA's Form 10-Q filed today and our Form 10-K filed earlier this year.
Speaker Change: For more information, please refer to the risks, uncertainties, and other factors discussed in HIPAA's SEC filings.
Speaker Change: in particular in the section entitled Risk Factors in our Form 10-Qs and Form 10-K.
Speaker Change: All cautionary statements are applicable to any forward-looking statements we make whenever they appear.
Speaker Change: You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties and other factors discussed in HIPAA's SEC filings.
do not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Speaker Change: as HIPPO is under no obligation and expressly disclaims any responsibility for updating, offering, or otherwise revising any forward-looking statements.
Speaker Change: whether as the result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
Speaker Change: During this conference call, we will refer to non-GAAP financial measures such as total generated premium and adjusted EBITDA.
Speaker Change: Our GAAP results and the description of our non-GAAP financial measures, with a full reconciliation to GAAP, can be found in the third quarter 2024 shareholder letter, which has been furnished to the SEC and is available on our website.
Mark Olson: And with that, I will turn the call over to Rick McCathron, our President and CEO. Thank you, Mark, and good morning, everyone. For the third quarter of 2024, we continued the positive momentum we've been building over the course of the year and made a significant step forward on our path to profitability.
Mark Olson: We also strengthened the foundation for growth in our new homes channel. During the quarter, top-line premium and revenue continued to grow quickly while we posted a HIPPO best-ever year-over-year improvement in our HHIP non-weather loss ratio.
Mark Olson: Our PCS loss results came in at expected levels despite an active hurricane season.
Mark Olson: and we delivered another quarter of improved operating leverage as the investments we've made to streamline our operations continue to pay off.
Speaker Change: Beyond the benefits to consumers, HIPPO's New Homes Program provides homebuilders access to a scalable, embedded insurance solution that streamlines the closing process for sales teams, lenders, and homebuyers by automating the evidence of insurance process.
Speaker Change: In Q3, we expanded homebuilder access to the program in California, Florida, and Texas, welcoming new builders Perry Holmes and Van Dale to our roster of builder partners, with more additions to come in Q4.
Speaker Change: By year's end, we expect to be in a position to provide access to insurance for almost 50,000 new homes annually in these states through both our HIPPO program and our panel of carrier partners.
Speaker Change: After the close of the quarter, HECO sold a majority stake in its independent agent platform, First Connect Insurance Services, to Centana Growth Partners for approximately 48 million dollars.
Speaker Change: with the opportunity to earn additional proceeds of up to $12 million if First Connect achieves certain performance targets.
Speaker Change: This transaction allows us to further increase focus on our core business while simultaneously freeing up First Connect to increase its level of investment to fulfill its potential as the premier independent agent distribution channel for carriers and MGAs.
Speaker Change: HIPAA will continue to be an enthusiastic customer, carrier partner, and a minority shareholder in First Connect.
Speaker Change: The proceeds from the transaction further strengthen our cash position, and we have taken this as an opportunity to repurchase and retire some of our own shares.
Speaker Change: Over the past couple of years, we've been striking a balance between improving our efficiency and investing in our business to support future growth. The work our team has been doing is increasingly visible in our financial results, and I'm optimistic about what is to come.
Mark Olson: Now, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Stuart Ellis, to walk through the highlights of our Q3 2024 financial results, as well as our expectations for the future.
Stuart Ellis: Thanks Rick, and good morning everyone. Our Q3 results illustrate the benefits of investments we've been making over the past several years.
We've delivered strong top-line growth and
substantial improvements in our loss ratio and operating leverage.
Stuart Ellis: As I walk through the key lines of our P&L, I'll explain the drivers behind our results and how the benefits of the investments we've been making are now visible in the P&L.
Stuart Ellis: In Q3, TGP grew 21% year-over-year to $368 million. TGP in our HIPPO Home Insurance Program segment
Stuart Ellis: declined 18% as a result of managing our exposure to high-cap geographies, but this was more than offset by TGP growth in our insurance-as-a-service segment.
of 12% and 46% TGP growth in our services segment.
Stuart Ellis: Revenue growth in Q3, again outpaced TGP growth, increasing 65% year-over-year to $95 million, up from $58 million in Q3 2023.
Stuart Ellis: Much like last quarter, the higher premium retention at HHIP and the volume increases in the insurance-as-a-service and services segments were the primary drivers of the growth.
Stuart Ellis: As we have discussed previously, our increasing confidence in both the magnitude and the predictability of our loss ratio has enabled us to retain a greater share of the premium we write on our own balance sheet.
Stuart Ellis: As a result of this higher premium retention, net earned premium as a percentage of gross earned premium in our HHIP business rose to 75% in Q3, up from 23% a year ago.
Stuart Ellis: Like in previous quarters, insurance as a service revenue growth was mostly driven by the premium growth from existing programs augmented by slightly higher risk retention.
with some of the programs.
Stuart Ellis: In our services segment, revenue grew more slowly than TGP due to the continued mixed shift from our agency, where we earn commissions on a gross basis, to our First Connect platform, where we take a percentage of the gross commission paid by carriers to our agency customers and recognize revenue on a net basis.
Stuart Ellis: We will not see this effect in future quarters, because following the sale of First Connect on October 29th, our agency will be the only driver of the services segment's financials.
Loss results in Q3 improved substantially year-over-year.
Stuart Ellis: despite an active hurricane season. HHIP PCS accident period loss ratio came in at 18%, an improvement of 20 percentage points quarter over quarter, and an improvement of 7 percentage points versus Q3 of last year.
Despite the significant improvement in our PCS results,
Stuart Ellis: The real star of the show this quarter was the improvement in our HHIP non-PCS accident period loss ratio.
Stuart Ellis: which improved an unprecedented 15 percentage points year over year to 52 percent. This improvement was driven by aggressive rate and underwriting actions across the portfolio as well as a favorable mixed shift toward new homes which generally experience lower non-weather losses than older homes.
Stuart Ellis: We achieved this improvement despite the shift at a portfolio level away from higher-capped geographies, which all things equal would tend to raise the non-PCS loss ratio.
Stuart Ellis: The combination of year-over-year improvements in both weather and non-weather loss ratios drove a substantial improvement in our total HHIP accident period loss ratio.
Stuart Ellis: which improved by 22 percentage points to 70% from 92% in Q3 of last year. This portfolio level improvement, combined with the improvements to our reinsurance structure, drove an even larger improvement in our HHIP net loss ratio.
Stuart Ellis: which came in at 84% during the quarter, an improvement of 67 percentage points versus Q3 of last year. Excluding the benefits of reserve releases in Q3 of 2023, this improvement would have been 126 percentage points.
Stuart Ellis: In Q3, we again delivered significant top-line growth while simultaneously reducing our operating expenses.
Stuart Ellis: both at the percentage of revenue and on an absolute dollar basis.
Stuart Ellis: Relative to Q3 of last year, our GAAP sales and marketing, technology and development, and general and administrative expenses collectively declined by $17 million.
Stuart Ellis: a year-over-year decrease of 33%. When combined with the increases in our revenue over the same period, these costs fell from 89% of revenue in Q3 of last year to 36% of revenue this quarter.
Stuart Ellis: Q3 net loss came in at $8.5 million, a $45 million, or 84% improvement versus Q3 of 2023. Compared to last quarter, our net loss improved by 79%, or $32 million.
Stuart Ellis: The primary drivers of the year-over-year improvement were a 67 percentage point improvement in our HHIP net loss ratio, better operating leverage,
Stuart Ellis: Continued growth in our businesses that are less susceptible to weather and underwriting volatility, an $8 million gain on the sale of a Shell insurance carrier, and a $5 million reduction in stock-based compensation.
Our Q3 adjusted EBITDA loss came in at $7.5 million.
a $31 million or 81% improvement versus Q3 of 2023.
Stuart Ellis: And compared to last quarter, our adjusted EBITDA loss improved by 70%, or $17 million.
Stuart Ellis: Q3 ending cash and investments increased quarter over quarter by $54 million to $545 million.
Stuart Ellis: This increase was driven primarily by higher collections from reinsurers, reducing the amounts outstanding that are owed to HIPPO, and the $8 million of proceeds from the sale of a shell insurance carrier, partially offset by losses from operations.
Stuart Ellis: And now, two additional updates beyond our Q3 financials. After the end of the third quarter, on October 29th, we entered into an agreement with Centana Growth Partners to sell a majority of our shares in our independent agent platform, First Connect Insurance Services.
Stuart Ellis: As part of the agreement, Centana invested additional capital in First Connect to support its future growth, and HIPPO realized cash proceeds of approximately $48 million.
Stuart Ellis: with an opportunity to earn up to an additional $12 million over the next few years if First Connect achieves certain performance targets. HIPPO also retains a 19.2% stake in First Connect.
Stuart Ellis: This transaction allows us to further increase focus on our core business, while simultaneously freeing up First Connect to use the incremental investment from Centana to increase its level of investment in its future growth. The proceeds from this transaction have further strengthened our cash position.
Stuart Ellis: After the first Connect transaction closed, HIPPO used $15.6 million of the proceeds to repurchase and retire 957,242, or 3.8% of our total shares outstanding.
Stuart Ellis: This reduction in shares outstanding is reflected in the shares outstanding we reported today on the cover of our Form 10-Q.
Stuart Ellis: Turning now to our Q4 guidance, the removal of First Connect from HIPAA's financials from the beginning of November will lower our expected Q4 TGP by approximately $50 to $60 million and expected revenue by approximately $1.5 to $1.8 million.
Stuart Ellis: But we'll have only a negligible impact on our expected net loss and adjusted EBITDA. Even with these effects and the expected impact of Hurricane Milton, we'd like to reiterate our previous Q4 guidance.
Stuart Ellis: for revenue of $95 to $99 million and adjusted EBITDA of positive $5 to $6 million. And with that, operator, I'd now like to open the floor to questions.
Speaker Change: Thank you. If you would like to ask a question you may do so by pressing star flow by one on your telephone keypad now. If you do change your mind please press star flow by two. When preparing to ask your question please ensure that your line is unmuted locally.
Speaker Change: Our first question today comes from Yaron Kina from Jeffreys. Please go ahead, Yaron. Your line is now open.
Yaron Kina: Thank you. Good morning. So I want to start with the entry.
Yaron Kina: and to California, Florida and Texas home builders that will offer access to 50,000 new homes annually. Can you maybe offer us an equivalent nationwide number?
Yaron Kina: So you're on. Nice to hear from you. This is Rick.
Speaker Change: I would reclassify it not as an entry into California, Florida, and Texas. We are already in California, Florida, and Texas with our existing home builder partners.
These are the additional homebuilder partners in those particular states.
Speaker Change: As of now, the homebuilders that we've publicly announced in this quarter, those are states that they are heavier in and concentrated more in, but we feel very good with both the quality
Speaker Change: of expected loss ratio from these builders and the diversification we have from other builders already on our platform and those that will be joining our platform in Q4. So.
Speaker Change: We feel good that we're doubling down on our home builder channels and markets that we feel positive in.
Speaker Change: So if there are about, what, just over a million homes built annually currently in the United States, how many of those can you service today?
Speaker Change: We have access to approximately 200,000 of the new homes with our existing partners.
Speaker Change: Again, I'll reiterate that we have an active business development cycle with various partners at various stages in that cycle.
Speaker Change: I think the number is a little bit more than a million. I think on average it's somewhere between 1 and 2 million. And we anticipate closer to 1.5 million as the addressable market in 2025.
Speaker Change: Great, thank you. And then, it may be too early to say, given a somewhat limited history here, but do you have any data points that would offer any color on the retention rates in the Home Builders Channel?
Speaker Change: as the insured homes roll off of the builder's warranties? And maybe also similarly, how the loss ratio looks as the roll-off occurs?
Speaker Change: Yes, certainly. It's a very high, very favorable retention rate and there's a couple of different ways of looking at it.
Speaker Change: The way we look at it is, these customers come to us more as an agency.
Speaker Change: than as a particular HIPAA home insurance product. So at times we place those policies on HHIP and at other times we place those policies with our carrier partners.
and both HHIP and our carrier partners.
Speaker Change: typically offer policies that shift or transition as those homes become older.
Speaker Change: into more of a traditional homeowners policy. So we not only have a very high retention, but we have the opportunity to transition those homes from a new construction policy to a more traditional policy as those homes age.
Ben Huron, this is Stuart on the...
Speaker Change: On the loss ratio side, I agree it's a little bit early for us within our own portfolio to really have a longer term view on ours specifically, but the
Speaker Change: The early data that we do have suggests that the new homes perform better than older homes, both in PPS events.
Speaker Change: and also on the non-weather losses. And that this is, you know, at a portfolio level for us, it is a highlight and one of the drivers of the improvement to our loss ratio. I think, as Rick said, the policies shift.
to more traditional homeowners policies as the homes age.
Speaker Change: And so you'd expect that, you know, after 10, 20 years, et cetera, these things would start to look...
Speaker Change: More like a traditional homeowner's loss ratio, but we're excited about the results that we're seeing on the loss ratio for the earlier period of the home's life.
Speaker Change: Got it. And then one quick one, if I could. I understand that the FirstConnect stake sale would have a negligible impact on EBITDA, but I assume it's a negligible positive impact because it was loss running, right, as it was building up?
Speaker Change: That's correct. Yeah, it's a small positive impact on adjusted EBITDA because it is on an operating income basis, still not yet profitable. And, you know, one of the things that...
Speaker Change: you know, that business, it makes sense for them to do is to increase their investment over time. So we felt like this was a nice time to allow that business to chart its own path. It's, it's a, you know,
Speaker Change: Creating a marketplace to connect agents and third-party carriers is a great business.
Speaker Change: but it's not our core business, and it's at a scale where allowing it to make the choices that are right for it and its future growth and value makes all the sense in the world.
Yeah, makes a lot of sense. Thank you.
Thank you.
Speaker Change: Thank you. As another reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on the show thank you pad now. Our next question comes from Tommy McJoint from KBW. Please go ahead Tommy, your line is now open.
Tommy McJoint: Hey, good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions. Did you talk about sort of the rationale for why Spinnaker sold that shell part of the business? Was it just a non-core, unutilized piece or was there any other rationale there?
Speaker Change: Yeah, hey Tommy, this is Rick. It is something that was was dormant, sort of on our shelf. So if you think about Spinnaker as a front team carrier,
Spinnaker actually has four different companies.
Speaker Change: within its banner. So it has Spinnaker, which is the the admitted...
Speaker Change: a minus rated carrier. It has spinnaker specialty, which is a also rated surplus lines carrier.
Speaker Change: We had Mainsail, which is the one that we sold that was an unused asset, widely licensed.
and we also have wing cell.
Speaker Change: which is an unused asset. We had a partner that wanted access to their own carrier and we thought it was a great way to monetize that transaction on an asset that was redundant, given the fact that we also have lien sales.
Speaker Change: It just made sense to move it out, but there was really no other rationale behind it.
Speaker Change: Okay, got it, makes sense. And then switching over to the HHIP program, obviously it's been a great turnaround in that segment, in that program. With a lot of the underwriting actions that you've taken, are you looking to kind of regrow, start growing that business into 2025? Like what are some early thoughts when you think about the potential growth rate in that segment?
Speaker Change: Yeah, I think, I think Tommy that, as we've said, since really q2 of 2023, our first priority
is to remediate the...
historical or legacy portfolio that was in HHIP.
Speaker Change: We've made a ton of progress on that, and I think not all the progress that we have made is actually even showing in the financials, as you know, these things take effect at renewal.
Speaker Change: and then it takes an entire year after renewal to work it into the financials. So there'll still be positive impact on that. We still have a little bit of work to do to clarify that portfolio, but we are also writing new business.
and areas that we believe strongly in that don't.
Speaker Change: don't contradict the hard work our team has done to turn it around.
Speaker Change: A lot of that is around the New Builder channel, but we are accelerating our growth in that. There'll still be a bit of a headwind for another quarter or two on the stuff that we're still getting rid of, but we are writing new business in areas we have a high likelihood of a positive expected loss ratio.
Speaker Change: That's right. We're going to give our guidance for 2025 next quarter but
IAAS, the Spinnaker platform, is doing exceptionally well.
Speaker Change: as is our agency, both in top-line growth and operational efficiency and in the spinnaker realm and quality of programs that it's
Speaker Change: that it partners with, and that will continue to be our primary driver in the short run, but we're looking forward to rebuilding the top-line momentum in HHIP as well.
Speaker Change: Okay, got it. And then just last one, the decision to repurchase some shares, did you feel that was a one-time sort of bullet with the the proceeds from the sale of First Connect, or should we think about buybacks being a recurring part of the story going forward?
Stuart Ellis: Yeah, Tommy, this is Stuart. Thanks for the question. As you know, the board has previously approved a
on a programmatic share buyback program, and
after the second quarter of 2023.
with the wind and hail events, we pause.
Stuart Ellis: the purchases under that program, just to, you know, get a little bit better sense of kind of the trajectory of the business and how things were going to be developing.
Stuart Ellis: As we get closer to profitability, I think we'll continue to explore ways to be opportunistic when we feel like
Stuart Ellis: repurchasing shares would be in the best interest of our shareholders.
Stuart Ellis: In this case, we had an opportunity to acquire shares at a discount to market with the incremental cash from the First Connect transaction, and I think with our increasing our increasingly close proximity to profitability you know, we will continue to look for opportunities to be opportunistic.
and Mark Olson. Thank you. Thank you.
Thanks for the call.
Speaker Change: Thank you. As a final reminder if you would like to ask a question please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad now.
Speaker Change: We have no further questions, so I'll hand back over to Rick McCathron for closing remarks.
Rick McCathron: Well, I would just like to thank everybody for joining the call. We're very excited about the progress in Q3 and look forward to sharing our continued improvements in Q4. Thank you everyone. Have a great day.
Speaker Change: Thank you. This does conclude today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.
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