By Carlos Pallordet

May 23 - (The Insurer) – Skyward Specialty's stock increased 9.4% the day after it announced its first-quarter results on May 1.

The reaction came after the insurer reported $1.01 in adjusted diluted operating income per share, surpassing analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.77 and marking a 12% increase from the $0.90 earned a year ago.

Shares continued to trend upwards in the following days, peaking on May 16 at 18.7% above the pre-release close price.

Although the stock has slightly eased in the past week, Skyward Specialty remains ahead of its peers, maintaining a 12.9% rise since its Q1 results announcement.

In contrast, RLI Corp is down 5.1% since posting results on April 23, while Kinsale Capital had a fall of 9.7% since its Q1 earnings release on April 24.

Shares in Trisura have achieve a slight gain of 1.6% since May 1.

Meanwhile, Palomar trails Skyward with a 3.3% rise since its Q1 results announcement on May 5, although it leads on year-to-date with a 52.3% increase.

Skyward's first-quarter results included a 15% increase in underwriting gain to $28.48 million and a 16.7% rise in gross written premium growth to $535.32 million.

CEO Andrew Robinson described the results as “outstanding,” emphasizing the strength of Skyward's diversified business portfolio, particularly in agriculture and accident and health divisions.