United Fire Group, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 (NASDAQ:UFCS)

United Fire Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFCS) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of 0.16 per share by the insurance provider on Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

United Fire Group has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 17.5% annually over the last three years. United Fire Group has a payout ratio of 34.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect United Fire Group to earn $1.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.7%.

United Fire Group Stock Up 0.1 %

United Fire Group stock traded up $0.04 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $27.47. The stock had a trading volume of 105,207 shares, compared to its average volume of 106,380. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $20.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.24. United Fire Group has a 12-month low of $18.04 and a 12-month high of $27.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $696.09 million, a P/E ratio of 13.95 and a beta of 0.37.

United Fire Group (NASDAQ:UFCS) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The insurance provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.60. United Fire Group had a net margin of 4.15% and a return on equity of 6.75%. The business had revenue of $322.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $306.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.31 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that United Fire Group will post 1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on UFCS. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of United Fire Group from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $19.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of United Fire Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th.

United Fire Group Company Profile

United Fire Group, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty insurance for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers commercial and personal lines of property and casualty insurance; and reinsurance coverage for property and casualty insurance. Its commercial lines include fire and allied lines, other liability, automobile, workers’ compensation, fidelity and surety coverage, and other insurance products; and personal lines comprise automobile, and fire and allied lines coverage, including homeowners, as well as provides assumed reinsurance products.