Shares of Universal Insurance Holdings (NYSE: UVE) climbed as much as 11% early Tuesday, then settled to close up 6.6% after the insurance services company announced a new share repurchase authorization.

In a press release this morning, Universal Insurance announced that its board of directors has approved a new $20 million share repurchase program. That's a reasonably large sum when you consider that it's around 3% of the company's entire market capitalization, which as of this writing stands at just above $600 million.

But what's particularly interesting about this repurchase agreement is that it comes after shares of Universal Insurance soared around 20% over the past three weeks on the heels of the company's better-than-expected quarterly update late last month. In that release, Universal Insurance delivered fourth-quarter adjusted (non-GAAP) net income of $12.6 million, or $0.43 per share, surprising Wall Street analysts who were anticipating a net loss of $0.16 per share. The company also revealed that it repurchased around 223,000 of its own shares for $3.6 million last quarter, leaving around $4.1 million remaining under its previous authorization.

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Source Fool.com