American Financial Group reports Q4 EPS $3.13, consensus $2.90

Reports Q4 revenue $2.08B, consensus $1.66B. Carl H. Lindner III and S. Craig Lindner, AFG‘s Co-Chief Executive Officers, issued this statement: “We are very pleased with our strong performance in the 2023 fourth quarter and full year. In addition to producing an annual core operating return on equity of nearly 20%, net written premiums grew by 8% during the year. Excellent underwriting results, strong investment performance and effective capital management enable us to continue to create long-term value for our shareholders. We are thankful for our talented insurance and investment professionals, who have positioned us well as we enter 2024. AFG continued to have significant excess capital at December 31, 2023. 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 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. Over the past year, we increased our quarterly dividend by 12.7% and paid special dividends of $5.50 per share. Growth in adjusted book value plus dividends was a very strong 16.6% during 2023.”