Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.39 EPS

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The insurance provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.30 by $0.39, Zacks reports. Donegal Group had a net margin of 2.54% and a return on equity of 3.95%.

Donegal Group Stock Performance

NASDAQ DGICA traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $15.15. 39,663 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 84,151. Donegal Group has a 1 year low of $12.26 and a 1 year high of $17.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $513.35 million, a P/E ratio of 20.01 and a beta of -0.02.

Donegal Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 18th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 4th were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.56%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 4th. This is an increase from Donegal Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. Donegal Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 90.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Donegal Group news, Director Sewell Trezevant Moore, Jr. sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.18, for a total transaction of $202,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 25,655 shares in the company, valued at $415,097.90. This trade represents a 32.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Mutual Insurance Co Donegal bought 270,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $16.66 per share, with a total value of $4,498,200.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 13,046,126 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $217,348,459.16. This trade represents a 2.11 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders purchased 399,722 shares of company stock worth $6,643,696 and sold 289,064 shares worth $4,799,023. 6.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.