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CINCINNATI, May 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cincinnati Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today announced that the executive committee of its board of directors has declared a 35-1/2 cents per share regular quarterly cash dividend payable July 16, 2007, to shareholders of record on June 22, 2007. The current dividend level reflects the 6.0 percent increase in the quarterly dividend rate announced by the board in February. That action set the stage for the 47th consecutive increase in the indicated annual cash dividend.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John J. Schiff, Jr., CPCU commented, "As Mergent noted in its Spring 2007 edition of the Dividend Achiever Handbook, Cincinnati Financial Corporation is ranked No. 11 among the companies with the longest records of consecutive dividend increases. Cincinnati Financial's board of directors believes that shareholders value our consistent dividend-paying policy, which is possible because of the board's confidence in our operating strength. We continue to believe we can achieve above-industry-average growth in written premiums, industry-leading profitability and investment income growth over the long term by building on our proven strategies: strong agency relationships, front-line underwriting, quality claims service, solid reserves, and total return investing."
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers property and casualty insurance, our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company, The Cincinnati Indemnity Company and The Cincinnati Casualty Company. The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company markets life and disability income insurance and annuities. CFC Investment Company offers commercial leasing and financing services. CinFin Capital Management Company provides asset management services to institutions, corporations and individuals.
This is our "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 20. Although we often review or update our forward-looking statements when events warrant, we caution our readers that we undertake no obligation to do so.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to:
-- Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations,
changes in weather patterns, environmental events, terrorism incidents
or other causes
-- Increased frequency and/or severity of claims
-- Inaccurate estimates or assumptions used for critical accounting
estimates
-- Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of
controls, that reduce the company's future ability to maintain
effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act of 2002
-- Events or conditions that could weaken or harm the company's
relationships with its independent agencies and hamper opportunities to
add new agencies, resulting in limitations on the company's
opportunities for growth, such as:
-- Downgrade of the company's financial strength ratings
-- Concerns that doing business with the company is too difficult or
-- Perceptions that the company's level of service, particularly
claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in the
marketplace
-- Delays or inadequacies in the development, implementation, performance
and benefits of technology projects and enhancements
-- Ability to obtain adequate reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of
reinsurance purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the
potential for non-payment or delay in payment by reinsurers
-- Increased competition that could result in a significant reduction in
the company's premium growth rate
-- Underwriting and pricing methods adopted by competitors that could
allow them to identify and flexibly price risks, which could decrease
our competitive advantages
-- Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other
regulatory agencies that:
-- Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable
coverages or lines of business
-- Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or
result in new statutes, rules and regulations
-- Increase our expenses
-- Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance related
assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair
our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges
or other rate changes
-- Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
-- Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace or
-- Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the
way we compensate agents
-- Sustained decline in overall stock market values negatively affecting
the company's equity portfolio and book value; in particular a
sustained decline in the market value of Fifth Third shares, a
significant equity holding
-- Recession or other economic conditions or regulatory, accounting or tax
changes resulting in lower demand for insurance products
-- Events that lead to a significant decline in the value of a particular
security and impairment of the asset
-- Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors that limit the
company's ability to generate growth in investment income or interest-
rate fluctuations that result in declining values of fixed-maturity
investments
-- Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings
-- Investment activities or market value fluctuations that trigger
restrictions applicable to the parent company under the
Investment Company Act of 1940
-- Events, such as an avian flu epidemic, natural catastrophe, terrorism
or construction delays, that could hamper our ability to assemble our
workforce at our headquarters location
Further, the company's insurance businesses are subject to the effects of changing social, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards and expand overall regulation. The company also is subject to public and regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for its common stock, such as recent measures affecting corporate financial reporting and governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these initiatives are uncertain.
SOURCE Cincinnati Financial Corporation
CONTACT: Investors, Heather J. Wietzel, +1-513-870-2768, or Media, Joan
O. Shevchik, +1-513-603-5323, both of Cincinnati Financial Corporation
Web site: http://www.cinfin.com
(CINF)