Old Republic International Corporation (ORI) will pay a $1.00 per share special dividend in the third quarter of 2019. This follows a similar special dividend payment in Q1 of 2018.

Earlier this year the insurance holding company hiked its quarterly dividend by 2.6 percent to $0.20 per share.

In its press release the company states the following: "In anticipation of gradually reducing, with regulatory approval, the capitalization of ORI's run-off mortgage guaranty insurance subsidiaries, the Board concluded that excess capital can now be returned to all shareholders in the form of a special, one-time cash dividend of $1.00 per common share.  Based on these considerations the Board of Directors has declared a special cash dividend of $1.00 per common share to be paid to shareholders of record on September 6, 2019, concurrently with the above noted regular cash dividend, for a total of $1.20 per share."

The regular dividend yields 3.5% based on the annual amount of $0.80 per share and a stock price of $22.81.

Chicago-based Old Republic International Corporation is an insurance holding company. Old Republic is primarily a commercial lines underwriter serving the insurance needs of a large number of organizations, including many of America’s leading industrial and financial services institutions. Its subsidiaries actively market, underwrite, and provide risk management services for a wide variety of coverages, mostly in the general and title insurance fields. Old Republic has paid a cash dividend without interruption since the World War II year of 1942. The company traces its beginnings to 1923, although several acquired subsidiaries began operations much earlier.