Insurance company Unico American Corp. said its board of directors has authorized a repurchase program to acquire up to 500,000 shares of its outstanding common stock.

The Woodland Hills parent of property and casualty firm Crusader Insurance Co. said the company had only 17,000 shares left in an earlier repurchase program prior to the authorization.

Shares of Unico closed Monday unchanged at $6.84, but the stock price is off 35 percent over the past year.

“At this time we believe the benefit of our diverse specialty insurance business performance and prospects are not fully reflected in our stock price,” said President Erwin Cheldin in a statement

He added that using the capital to repurchase shares would have a greater return at this time than pursuing business expansion plans, while also allowing the company to “maintain a conservative stance with regard to capital adequacy.”