Donegal Group Inc. (DGICA) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 7th

Donegal Group Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be given a dividend of 0.172 per share by the insurance provider on Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 7th. This is a positive change from Donegal Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Donegal Group has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 21 consecutive years. Donegal Group has a dividend payout ratio of 60.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Donegal Group to earn $0.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 85.0%.

Donegal Group Trading Up 2.8 %

DGICA traded up $0.38 during trading on Friday, hitting $14.02. 61,144 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,493. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. Donegal Group has a 1 year low of $13.10 and a 1 year high of $15.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $13.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.17. The firm has a market cap of $468.13 million, a P/E ratio of 100.14 and a beta of -0.07.

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The insurance provider reported ($0.11) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by ($0.34). Donegal Group had a return on equity of 0.40% and a net margin of 0.48%. The firm had revenue of $239.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $234.10 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.09 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Donegal Group will post 0.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com cut shares of Donegal Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 23rd.

Institutional Trading of Donegal Group

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Donegal Group by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 42,963 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Donegal Group by 46.1% during the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 60,033 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 18,954 shares during the period. Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Donegal Group by 30.9% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 33,586 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $470,000 after purchasing an additional 7,931 shares during the period. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Donegal Group by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 225,816 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $3,159,000 after purchasing an additional 9,216 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its holdings in shares of Donegal Group by 127.5% during the fourth quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 13,328 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $187,000 after purchasing an additional 7,470 shares during the period. 27.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Donegal Group

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.