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

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be paid 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 yield of 1.46%. This is a boost from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72.

Assurant has increased its dividend payment by an average of 3.4% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 20 consecutive years. Assurant has a dividend payout ratio of 16.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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 Down 1.1 %

AIZ traded down $2.43 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $219.17. The stock had a trading volume of 360,076 shares, compared to its average volume of 349,848. The company has a market capitalization of $11.24 billion, a PE ratio of 15.81, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.57. Assurant has a twelve month low of $160.12 and a twelve month high of $221.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a current ratio of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $197.60 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.16.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assurant news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 20,658 shares in the company, valued at $4,321,240.44. The trade was a 12.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AIZ shares. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Assurant from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $225.20.

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.