Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.18 Per Share

Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of 0.1825 per share by the insurance provider on Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. This is a 5.8% increase from Donegal Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Donegal Group has raised its dividend by an average of 3.0% per year over the last three years. Donegal Group has a dividend payout ratio of 43.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Donegal Group to earn $1.40 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.73 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 52.1%.

Donegal Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DGICA opened at $18.24 on Friday. Donegal Group has a twelve month low of $12.26 and a twelve month high of $19.87. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $17.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.16. The stock has a market cap of $650.06 million, a P/E ratio of 12.00 and a beta of -0.05. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The insurance provider reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $249.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $250.61 million. Donegal Group had a net margin of 5.14% and a return on equity of 9.50%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Donegal Group will post 1.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Donegal Group from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP David Wayne Sponic sold 5,537 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.17, for a total value of $100,607.29. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 2,006 shares in the company, valued at $36,449.02. The trade was a 73.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Mutual Insurance Co Donegal acquired 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $18.14 per share, for a total transaction of $145,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,334,382 shares in the company, valued at $241,885,689.48. This represents a 0.06 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders bought 105,908 shares of company stock worth $1,865,086 and sold 47,119 shares worth $845,651. 6.63% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Donegal Group Company Profile

Donegal Group Inc, an insurance holding company, provides property and casualty insurance to businesses and individuals. It operates through three segments: Investment Function, Personal Lines of Insurance, and Commercial Lines of Insurance. The company offers private passenger automobile policies that provide protection against liability for bodily injury and property damage arising from automobile accidents, as well as protection against loss from damage to automobiles; and homeowners policies, which provide coverage for damage to residences and their contents from a range of perils, including fire, lightning, windstorm, and theft, as well as liability of the insured arising from injury to other persons or their property.