Hello world! I’m almost fully invested and do not find any new wonderful stocks so I keep track of my actual holdings. This week, Assurant inc released their forth quarter results. I will try to highlight my major findings.
Share repurchase slowed in Q4 but not willingly. There is still 500m left in the repurchase authorization.
Share repurchases and dividends totaled $472 million for full-year 2012. Dividends to shareholders in 2012 totaled $69.4 million. During 2012, the Company repurchased 11 million shares, or 12 percent of its common stock outstanding at the end of 2011, at a cost of $402.7 million. Early in the fourth quarter, Assurant repurchased 852,000 shares of its common stock for $33.4 million. Superstorm Sandy made landfall Oct. 29, 2012. Pending loss estimates, Assurant did not implement a new share repurchase program. By the time a loss estimate was announced Dec. 18, 2012, the Company was in an earnings blackout period. Assurant has $503 million remaining in the current repurchase authorization.
ROE is stable and at industry average. By paying less than book, we get a great return.
Annual operating return on average equity (ROE)3, excluding AOCI, was 10.4 percent in 2012
Book value increased 13%.
So my original investment thesis remains intact and the future looks bright!
disclosure : Author is long AIZ.
Pretoria Investment 
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