The company expects to return a total of approximately $1.35 billion to shareholders through the end of 2021, through common stock dividends and share repurchases, while also continuing to invest in business growth and maintain its Investment Grade debt ratings. Repurchases and common stock dividends are subject to approval by the Board and other factors, including those described below.
“We’re confident in our ability to continue to drive profitable growth and strong returns across our portfolio. With more diversified earnings and reduced catastrophe exposure, we expect to continue to generate significant cash flow, which we intend to reinvest in our business to support long-term growth and innovation and return excess capital to shareholders over time,” Colberg continued.
In the fifteen years since going public, Assurant has raised its common stock dividend every year and repurchased 62 percent of its common stock.
| (1) | 2019 Outlook provided on Feb. 12, 2019 |
| (2) | Reportable catastrophe losses include individual Insurance Services Office (“ISO”) events, greater than $5 millionpre-tax, net reinsurance and include reinstatement premiums. |
| (3) | Includes share repurchases and common stock dividends, subject to Board approval and other factors, including those described under the safe harbor statement. |
Investor Day Webcast
Alive webcast of the event will be held on March 14, 2019 at 9 a.m. ET. The live and archived replay of the presentations will be available throughthe Investor Relations section of Assurant’s website atwww.assurant.com. Slides of the presentations will be posted for viewing shortly before the event begins.
Safe Harbor Statement
Some of the statements included in this news release, particularly those anticipating future financial performance, business prospects, growth and operating strategies and similar matters, including our ability to grow net operating income, excluding reportable catastrophes (including on a per diluted share basis), and our ability to return capital to shareholders, through share repurchases, common stock dividends or otherwise, and our capital deployment strategy, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these statements by the use of words such as “outlook,” “objectives,” “will,” “may,” “can,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates,” “projects,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “targets,” “forecasts,” “potential,” “approximately,” or the negative version of those words and other words and terms with a similar meaning. Any forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon our historical performance and on current plans, estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by us will be achieved. Our actual results might differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statements in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or other developments. The following risk factors could cause our actual results to differ materially from those currently estimated by management, including those projected in the financial objectives:
