Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (UVE) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 on March 14th

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UVE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.16 per share by the insurance provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Universal Insurance’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13.

Universal Insurance has a payout ratio of 24.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Universal Insurance to earn $2.65 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 24.2%.

Universal Insurance Trading Down 2.4 %

NYSE:UVE opened at $21.73 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $20.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.75. Universal Insurance has a twelve month low of $16.50 and a twelve month high of $23.39. The company has a market cap of $614.65 million, a P/E ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.91.

Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The insurance provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.16. Universal Insurance had a return on equity of 15.43% and a net margin of 4.82%. The business had revenue of $384.81 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $349.91 million. As a group, analysts expect that Universal Insurance will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Universal Insurance

In related news, Chairman Sean P. Downes sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.51, for a total value of $1,025,500.00. Following the sale, the chairman now owns 985,320 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,208,913.20. The trade was a 4.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Jon Springer sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.63, for a total value of $515,750.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 383,228 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,905,993.64. This represents a 6.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 115,000 shares of company stock worth $2,424,450. Insiders own 17.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com cut Universal Insurance from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Universal Insurance Company Profile

Universal Insurance Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated insurance holding company in the United States. It develops, markets, and underwrites insurance products for personal residential insurance, such as homeowners, renters/tenants, condo unit owners, and dwelling/fire; and offers allied lines, coverage for other structures, and personal property, liability, and personal articles coverages.