Stewart Information Services Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.50 (NYSE:STC)

Stewart Information Services Co. (NYSE:STC) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, December 2nd,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 16th will be given a dividend of 0.50 per share by the insurance provider on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 16th.

Stewart Information Services has increased its dividend by an average of 15.5% per year over the last three years. Stewart Information Services has a dividend payout ratio of 35.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Stewart Information Services to earn $6.29 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.8%.

Stewart Information Services Stock Performance

STC stock opened at $75.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $71.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $69.17. Stewart Information Services has a 52 week low of $49.40 and a 52 week high of $76.88. The stock has a market cap of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.61 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The insurance provider reported $1.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.21. Stewart Information Services had a return on equity of 5.77% and a net margin of 2.47%. The business had revenue of $667.94 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $638.40 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.86 earnings per share. Stewart Information Services’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Stewart Information Services will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Stewart Information Services from $71.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Stewart Information Services news, Director Matthew Morris sold 12,899 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.12, for a total value of $956,073.88. Following the sale, the director now owns 65,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,842,259.60. This trade represents a 16.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 2.99% of the company’s stock.

About Stewart Information Services

Stewart Information Services Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides title insurance and real estate transaction related services in the United States and internationally. The company involves in searching, examining, closing, and insuring the condition of the title to real property. It also offers home and personal insurance services; services for tax-deferred exchanges; and digital customer engagement platform services.