United Fire Group, Inc. (UFCS) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 on December 13th

United Fire Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:UFCS) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, November 15th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th.

United Fire Group has decreased its dividend by an average of 17.5% per year over the last three years. United Fire Group has a payout ratio of 29.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect United Fire Group to earn $2.20 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 29.1%.

United Fire Group Trading Up 1.1 %

United Fire Group stock traded up $0.34 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $30.36. The company had a trading volume of 10,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 109,331. The stock has a market cap of $769.32 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.47 and a beta of 0.37. United Fire Group has a 1-year low of $18.04 and a 1-year high of $31.14. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $22.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $21.52.

United Fire Group (NASDAQ:UFCS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The insurance provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.60. United Fire Group had a return on equity of 6.75% and a net margin of 4.15%. The firm had revenue of $322.96 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $306.80 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.31 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that United Fire Group will post 1.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on UFCS shares. Piper Sandler raised shares of United Fire Group from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $19.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of United Fire Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th.

About United Fire Group

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.