HCI's Patel rings NASDAQ bell

July was quite the busy month for Clearwater insurance executive Paresh Patel.

First, on July 1, Patel took over CEO duties of Homeowners Choice Inc., a Clearwater-based publicly traded insurance firm he co-founded in 2006. Patel, who had been chairman of the board, replaced Frank McCahill, who resigned in June for personal reasons.

Patel ended the month in New York City, where, on July 29, he led the firm in the opening-bell ceremonies at the Nasdaq stock exchange. It was the second time Patel led Homeowners Choice (symbol: HCII, recent price: $7) in getting Nasdaq's trading day going.

“This time was even better,” Patel tells Coffee Talk. “The first time you are a little awestruck.”

Patel and a group of local entrepreneurs co-founded Homeowners Choice. The firm was a response to what the executives thought was a big opportunity in homeowner's insurance when national firms pulled out of Florida in 2005 and 2006.

The firm has since posted some fast growth. It went public in the summer of 2008, and its IPO was oversubscribed and raised $11.7 million. It raised another $12.5 million in new capital in April, with a preferred stock offering.

On the policy side, the firm now has 61,000 policyholders in Florida, with about $130 million in annual premiums. The growth in new policies goes against the industry trend, with competitors mostly shedding clients, not picking up new ones.

Still, the firm's profit shrunk by more than 50% in 2010, from $10.91 million in 2009 to $5.42 million last year, a slide the company attributed to higher reinsurance rates. Annual revenues were nearly the same, from $68.4 million in 2009 to $68.6 million in 2010.