We believe that shareholder value will be increased in the long run if we meet or exceed the financial goals and policies that we establish each year. We do not manage our business to maximize short-term stock performance or the amount of any dividend that may be paid. Due to our focus on the long-term value of the enterprise, we may undertake business decisions and strategies and establish related financial goals that are designed to enhance our longer-term performance and value, while understanding that such decisions and strategies may not always similarly benefit short-term results, such as growth goals, our annual underwriting profit, dividend payouts, or earnings per share. We do not provide earnings estimates to the market and do not comment on earnings estimates by analysts. As a result, our reported results for a particular period may vary, perhaps significantly, from investors’ expectations, which could result in significant volatility in the price of our equity or debt securities. Our Property business has caused, and is likely to continue to cause, additional volatility in our consolidated results.
We currently report earnings and other operating results on a monthly basis. We undertook a multi-year financial enterprise resource planning effort to modernize certain of our financial systems and processes. In conjunction with this effort, in the fourth quarter of 2023, we converted our monthly accounting closing calendar to align with the Gregorian calendar (e.g., January-31 days, February-28/29 days, March-31 days). We do not expect that these changes will have a material impact on our reported quarterly and annual results, but they may impact year-over-year comparisons of monthly results from October 2023 through September 2024. As a result, during this period, we will modify and limit the content, and potentially the timing, of public disclosures of our monthly results relative to our historical practice, which could cause additional volatility in our stock price.
Due to our focus on the long-term value of the enterprise, similar tradeoffs may be involved in our consideration of the interests of other stakeholders, including our employees, customers, agents, suppliers, and communities, as well as whether and how we respond to or address ESG, sustainability, and corporate responsibility initiatives and other public policy matters that impact us. These types of initiatives and considerations are fast-evolving areas and determining appropriate responses and actions can be uncertain. Different stakeholders often have conflicting perspectives on these initiatives and considerations. Depending on how
- 25 -
- 25 -
- 25 -
- 25 -
- 25 -
- 25 -
observers view our responses or our commitment to addressing such matters, we could be subject to criticism, adverse publicity, or campaigns, among other actions, by investors, activists, or others. Consequently, such factors and the related tradeoffs may adversely affect our financial performance or the market prices of our equity or debt securities.