American Financial Group pays special dividend

American Financial Group, Inc. (AFG) will pay another special dividend of $4.00 per share. The insurance holding company last raised its quarterly dividend by 12 percent to 56 cents per share in August and paid $4.00 and $2.00 special dividend earlier in 2021. The regular annual dividend rate of $2.24 per AFG share yields 1.6% at a stock price of $143.

The dividend is payable on November 22, 2021 to shareholders of record on November 15, 2021. The aggregate amount of this special dividend will be approximately $340 million. This special dividend is in addition to the Company’s regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.56 per share most recently paid on October 25, 2021. With this special dividend, the Company has declared $24.00 per share in special dividends in 2021.

S. Craig Lindner and Carl H. Lindner III, AFG’s Co-Chief Executive Officers, issued this statement: “We are extremely pleased with AFG’s performance during the third quarter. Our Specialty P&C businesses reported outstanding underwriting margins, and results in our portfolio of alternative investments continued to exceed our expectations. Annualized core return on equity was nearly 18%. We believe that our disciplined – yet opportunistic – operating philosophy, a lower net catastrophe exposure than our peers, a continued economic recovery and a strong P&C rate environment all contributed to these outstanding results.

“AFG had approximately $3.0 billion of excess capital (including parent company cash and investments of approximately $2.7 billion) at September 30, 2021. Returning capital to shareholders in the form of regular and special cash dividends and through opportunistic share repurchases is an important and effective component of our capital management strategy. In addition, our excess capital will be deployed into AFG’s core businesses as we identify potential for healthy, profitable organic growth, and opportunities to expand our specialty niche businesses through acquisitions and start-ups that meet our target return thresholds.

American Financial Group is an insurance holding company, based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Through the operations of Great American Insurance Group, AFG is engaged primarily in property and casualty insurance, focusing on specialized commercial products for businesses. Great American Insurance Group’s roots go back to 1872 with the founding of its flagship company, Great American Insurance Company. American Financial Group has paid an uninterrupted dividend to its shareholders every year since at least 1986.