Kingstone Companies reports Q1 2026 results this morning — and the insider activity heading into the print tells a more cautious story than the stock's recent monthly gain suggests.
The most notable shift in positioning is on the insider ledger. Net selling has dominated the past 90 days: an independent director offloaded 13,500 shares at $18.00 on April 16, and the Chief Accounting Officer sold twice in recent months. The CEO, Meryl Golden, sold 7,735 shares in January at $16.83. Net insider activity over the 90-day window amounts to a positive $305K on paper — but that figure is flattered by the Chairman and CEO purchases made back in May 2025, a year ago. The more recent, post-rally activity has been entirely on the sell side, with insiders consistently choosing to reduce exposure as the stock climbed.
The lending market offers little reason for bears to feel emboldened. Short interest runs at just 2.3% of the free float — modest by any measure — and has fallen roughly 32% over the past month. Cost to borrow is nearly negligible at 0.36%, down sharply from around 0.78% a month ago. Borrow availability is wide open relative to the size of the short position, which means there is no squeeze pressure in the background. Options positioning reinforces the subdued tone: the put/call ratio of 0.04 is well below its 20-day average of 0.055, making this one of the least defensively positioned readings in the past year. Calls dominate the options market, suggesting little in the way of hedging activity ahead of the release.
The price backdrop is mixed. Kingstone shares closed at $16.15 on Thursday, up 11% over the past month but slipping almost 2% in Thursday's session and 3% on the week — a pattern consistent with some profit-taking after a strong run. Correlated peers were mostly flat to positive on the week; MKL added 1.5% and EG gained 2.3%, while HIPO fell nearly 3%. Analyst data is too dated to be actionable — the most recent coverage action on file is from mid-2024, when Janney initiated with a Buy and a $6.50 target, a figure that no longer reflects the stock's current price level and should not be treated as current guidance. The company carries a 94th-percentile EPS surprise score, a track record that sets a high bar for the print.
The earnings report arrives with a stock that has run hard into the release, insiders who have been quietly selling into that strength, and options markets that remain conspicuously unbothered — testing whether the company's history of beating estimates can sustain the valuation at current levels.
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