Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.80 Per Share

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th will be given a dividend of 0.80 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, December 30th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. This is a positive change from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72.

Assurant has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.4% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Assurant has a payout ratio of 16.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Assurant to earn $17.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.2%.

Assurant Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AIZ traded up $1.62 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $220.79. 43,520 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 348,487. The stock has a market cap of $11.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.63, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.57. Assurant has a 12-month low of $160.12 and a 12-month high of $222.67. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $198.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $183.47. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.48. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 17.42%. The business’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.29 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Assurant will post 15.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AIZ shares. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Assurant presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $225.20.

Insider Transactions at Assurant

In other Assurant news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,321,240.44. This represents a 12.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.