Baird Financial Group Inc. Decreases Position in Cincinnati Financial Co. (NASDAQ:CINF)

Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Cincinnati Financial Co. (NASDAQ:CINF) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 97,110 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after selling 8,511 shares during the quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. owned 0.06% of Cincinnati Financial worth $13,955,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cincinnati Financial by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,167,705 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,754,399,000 after purchasing an additional 173,417 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Cincinnati Financial by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,006,254 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $863,099,000 after buying an additional 224,033 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cincinnati Financial by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,930,022 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $563,323,000 after acquiring an additional 185,705 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Cincinnati Financial by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,672,210 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $240,297,000 after acquiring an additional 162,714 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cincinnati Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $223,959,000. 65.24% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CINF shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Cincinnati Financial from $182.00 to $148.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Roth Mkm raised their price objective on shares of Cincinnati Financial from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cincinnati Financial from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $147.40.

Cincinnati Financial Price Performance

CINF opened at $145.25 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $139.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $142.66. Cincinnati Financial Co. has a fifty-two week low of $111.92 and a fifty-two week high of $161.75. The firm has a market cap of $22.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.30 and a beta of 0.73.

Cincinnati Financial (NASDAQ:CINF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 28th. The insurance provider reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.61) by $0.37. Cincinnati Financial had a return on equity of 9.01% and a net margin of 20.22%. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cincinnati Financial Co. will post 5.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Cincinnati Financial Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, June 23rd will be given a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 23rd. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. Cincinnati Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.95%.

Cincinnati Financial Profile

Cincinnati Financial Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property casualty insurance products in the United States. It operates through five segments: Commercial Lines Insurance, Personal Lines Insurance, Excess and Surplus Lines Insurance, Life Insurance, and Investments. The Commercial Lines Insurance segment offers coverage for commercial casualty, commercial property, commercial auto, and workers' compensation.