Horace Mann Educators (HMN) will raise its quarterly dividend by 3.3 percent in 2021. This follows a 4.3 percent hike to $0.30 per share in 2020. This marks the 12th consecutive year of dividend increases by the company.

The next dividend is payable on March 31, 2021, to shareholders of record as of March 17, 2021. A new annual dividend rate of $1.24 per share yields 2.8% at a stock price of $42.52.

“Horace Mann is committed to driving long-term shareholder value creation,” said Marita Zuraitis, Horace Mann President and CEO. “This is the 13th consecutive year the Board has increased the annual shareholder cash dividend. In addition, we continue to opportunistically repurchase shares, buying almost 40,000 shares in February at a total cost of approximately $1.5 million.

“We will continue to drive shareholder value through execution of our strategic initiatives. As previously disclosed, we expect 2021 core earnings per share in the range of $3.00 to $3.20,” added Zuraitis. “Our primary use of the capital we generate will continue to be to support business growth at returns that meet or exceed our return on equity targets.”

Horace Mann Educators Corporation is an insurance holding company.  Through its subsidiaries, the company markets and underwrites personal lines of property and casualty insurance, primarily automobile and property coverages supplemental insurance, primarily heart, cancer, accident and limited short-term supplemental disability coverages, retirement products, primarily tax-qualified annuities and life insurance, primarily whole life, term and indexed universal life (IUL). Founded by Educators for Educators, the company's business began in Springfield, Illinois in 1945 when two school teachers started selling automobile insurance to other teachers within Illinois.