Insurance firm rings out big day

Clearwater insurance executive Paresh Patel, along with a dozen colleagues and relatives, hit the big time in the Big Apple last month.

The chairman and CEO of Homeowners Choice Inc., Patel rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange Oct. 25. The ceremony officially marked the firm's stock switch from a listing on the Nasdaq to a listing on the Big Board, the NYSE.

Patel, in an interview earlier this month with the Business Review, says the switch was an important milestone for the company, which had $94.84 million in 2011 revenues. “It's where the big boys play in our industry,” says Patel. “It tells everyone we met the highest, most stringent financial criteria ... to us, it's quite a wonderful statement.”

The firm has 110,000 homeowner's insurance policyholders. Founded in 2006, Homeowners Choice has about 220 employees in the Tampa region, including 100 or so who were added over the past year. A spokeswoman says the company expects to hire around 40 more people in 2013.

Homeowners Choice trades under the symbol HCI. The stock closed at $22.81 a share Oct. 26, the last full day of trading before Hurricane Sandy forced a two-day Wall Street shutdown.