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

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The insurance provider reported $0.69 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 Down 0.2 %

NASDAQ DGICA traded down $0.03 on Thursday, hitting $15.15. 39,663 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 84,151. The company has a market cap of $513.35 million, a PE ratio of 20.01 and a beta of -0.02. Donegal Group has a 12 month low of $12.26 and a 12 month high of $17.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $15.10 and a 200-day moving average of $15.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Donegal Group Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Jon Marshall Mahan sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.15, for a total transaction of $201,875.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8,988 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $145,156.20. This represents a 58.17 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Mutual Insurance Co Donegal acquired 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.19 per share, for a total transaction of $137,615.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now directly owns 12,713,138 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $205,825,704.22. This represents a 0.07 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have purchased 399,722 shares of company stock valued at $6,643,696 and have sold 289,064 shares valued at $4,799,023. 6.63% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Donegal Group

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.