Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The insurance provider reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.11 by $0.01, Zacks reports. Stewart Information Services had a return on equity of 5.77% and a net margin of 2.47%.

Stewart Information Services Trading Up 1.9 %

NYSE STC traded up $1.21 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $65.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 187,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 195,180. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.94. Stewart Information Services has a 52-week low of $56.16 and a 52-week high of $78.44. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $68.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.04 and a beta of 1.23.

Stewart Information Services Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 16th were given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 16th. Stewart Information Services’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 94.34%.

Insider Transactions at Stewart Information Services

In related news, Director Matthew Morris sold 12,899 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.12, for a total transaction of $956,073.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 65,330 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,842,259.60. This represents a 16.49 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on STC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Stewart Information Services from $84.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Stewart Information Services from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st.

Stewart Information Services Company Profile

Stewart Information Services Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides title insurance and real estate transaction related services in the United States and internationally. The company involves in searching, examining, closing, and insuring the condition of the title to real property. It also offers home and personal insurance services; services for tax-deferred exchanges; and digital customer engagement platform services.