CSM Advisors LLC Invests $3.70 Million in Donegal Group, Inc. $DGICA

CSM Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Donegal Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:DGICA) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 184,745 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,699,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CWM LLC grew its holdings in Donegal Group by 78.0% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,163 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 2,263 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Donegal Group during the 1st quarter worth about $489,000. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Donegal Group in the first quarter worth approximately $714,000. XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in Donegal Group by 56.8% in the first quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 16,387 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 5,935 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Donegal Group by 2.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 946,432 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $18,578,000 after purchasing an additional 19,174 shares during the last quarter. 27.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on DGICA shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Donegal Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered Donegal Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Janney Montgomery Scott raised Donegal Group from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Donegal Group in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $18.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Mutual Insurance Co Donegal acquired 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 29th. The stock was bought at an average price of $17.84 per share, with a total value of $356,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 13,500,977 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $240,857,429.68. The trade was a 0.15% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders purchased 228,958 shares of company stock valued at $4,268,466. 6.63% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Donegal Group Stock Up 1.1%

Shares of Donegal Group stock opened at $19.24 on Monday. Donegal Group, Inc. has a twelve month low of $14.17 and a twelve month high of $21.12. The stock has a market cap of $702.43 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.08 and a beta of 0.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $19.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.93.

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The insurance provider reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.37 by $0.15. Donegal Group had a return on equity of 14.33% and a net margin of 8.33%.The company had revenue of $245.55 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $244.19 million. Equities research analysts forecast that Donegal Group, Inc. will post 1.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Donegal Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 17th. Investors of record on Monday, November 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.1825 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $0.73 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.8%. Donegal Group’s payout ratio is 30.17%.

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.