Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) Increases Dividend to $0.17 Per Share

Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 4th will be given a dividend of 0.1725 per share by the insurance provider on Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.41%. This is a positive change from Donegal Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Donegal Group has raised its dividend by an average of 4.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 20 years. Donegal Group has a dividend payout ratio of 53.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Donegal Group to earn $1.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.69 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 57.5%.

Donegal Group Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ DGICA opened at $15.64 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.38 and a quick ratio of 0.38. The company has a market cap of $530.13 million, a PE ratio of 20.58 and a beta of -0.03. Donegal Group has a 12 month low of $12.26 and a 12 month high of $17.00.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com raised shares of Donegal Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Donegal Group news, VP Sanjay Pandey sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.50, for a total value of $542,500.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 6,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $106,500.50. This trade represents a 83.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Mutual Insurance Co Donegal bought 270,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $16.66 per share, with a total value of $4,498,200.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 13,046,126 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,348,459.16. The trade was a 2.11 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have acquired 616,809 shares of company stock worth $10,026,700 and have sold 379,564 shares worth $6,212,273. 6.63% of the stock is 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.