Allianz: shares lower despite good news on dividend

(CercleFinance.com) - Shares in Allianz are down over 1% on Friday, even though the German insurer promised a higher dividend after "strong results" for the full year 2017.


In a statement issued this morning before the Frankfurt market opened, Germany's insurance giant said it would propose raising its dividend by 5.3% to 8 euros per share for 2017 compared to 7.60 euros per share for 2016.

The consensus was expecting just 7.90 euros.

While the insurer said full-year results were driven by "higher performance in asset management and life and health," its fourth quarter was affected by one-off items.

Fourth-quarter net income decreased to 1.4 billion euros, from 1.8 billion euros a year earlier, affected by the one-off impact of US tax changes and the sale of Oldenburgische Landesbank.

This is far less than the consensus of 1.6 billion euros.

Allianz shares opened 1.1% lower at 187.5 euros, underperforming a 0.1% rise in the STOXX Europe 600 Optimised Insurance index.

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