Upcoming AWS Coverage on Cincinnati Financial Post-Earnings Results

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / February 21, 2017 / Active Wall St. blog coverage looks at the headline from Hamilton, Bermuda based XL Group Ltd. (NYSE: XL) as the Company announced on February 17, 2017, that its Board of Directors had authorized the buyback up to $1 billion of its common share. Register with us now for your free membership and blog access at:

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One of XL Group's competitors within the Property & Casualty Insurance space, Cincinnati Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CINF), reported on February 08, 2017, its Q4 and full-year 2016 results. AWS will be initiating a research report on Cincinnati Financial in the coming days.

Today, AWS is promoting its blog coverage on XL; touching on CINF. Get all of our free blog coverage and more by clicking on the links below:

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XL Group was founded in 1986 and is a holding Company, which provides insurance and reinsurance services through its subsidiaries. It operates through XL Catlin brand which offers property, casualty, specialty insurance, and reinsurance products to industrial, commercial, and professional firms, insurance Companies and other enterprises. Its operations are spread across more than 100 locations in over 30 countries and are supported by a workforce of more than 7,000 people.

About the New Share Buyback program

Under the new buyback program, the Company plans to use its cash reserves to make share purchased from the open market or through privately negotiated transactions. Various factors like market conditions, legal requirements, etc. will influence the timing, form, and amount of share buybacks by the Company. The Company's Board holds the right to modify, extend, or completely terminate the share buyback program, at any time.

With the announcement of the new share buyback program, the previous buyback program which had a balance of approximately $349 million was annulled.

XL Group has a strong share buyback program and over the years the Company has increased value for its shareholder's manifold. XL Group had announced a similar share buyback of $1 billion each in February 2014, August 2015, and May 2016. In February 2012, the Company had announced a share buyback of $750 million and $850 million in February 2013.

Share buybacks for the full year ended December 31, 2016, was approximately 30.2 million shares, or $1.1 billion, compared to buyback of 12.4 million shares, or $466.7 million, during the same period in 2015.

Dividend payment

On February 16, 2017, the Company also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.22 per share payable on March 31, 2017. The dividend is $0.02 higher than the quarterly dividend of $0.20 paid by the Company earlier in January 2017. Based on the current announcement, the annualized dividend paid is $0.88 per share.

Apart from this, the Board also approved on February 16, 2017, dividends for various categories of Preference shares of its wholly-owned subsidiary, XLIT Ltd. XLIT's Series D Preference Ordinary Shares will receive a dividend of $10.4730 per share which will be paid on April 18, 2017. XLIT's Series E Preference Ordinary Shares will receive a dividend of $32.50 per share which will be paid on April 18, 2017.

Earnings Highlights

On February 01, 2016, XL Group announced its Q4 2016 and FY16 results for the quarter and year ending on December 31, 2016. The Company's net income attributable to common shareholders was $304.7 million, or $1.12 per share, for Q4 2016 and $441.0 million, or $1.56 per share, for FY16. The figures exclude the contributions from the GreyCastle Life Retro Arrangements. The Company reported operating net income of $128.4 million, or $0.47 per share, for Q4 and $460.7 million, or $1.63 per share, for the year. This was lower than the net income of $195.0 million for Q4 2015. The difference was largely due to the greater catastrophe losses incurred in 2016 viz., the Hurricane Matthew and the recent earthquake activity in New Zealand.

Stock Performance

On Friday, February 17, 2017, the stock closed the trading session at $40.95, marginally climbing 0.76% from its previous closing price of $40.64. A total volume of 1.77 million shares have exchanged hands. XL Group's stock price surged 10.23% in the last three months, 23.54% in the past six months, and 22.97% in the previous twelve months. Furthermore, since the start of the year, shares of the Company have gained 9.90%. The stock is trading at a PE ratio of 25.59 and has a dividend yield of 1.95%.

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SOURCE: Active Wall Street