Well, good morning and welcome. It is an honor to be with you today at the Cincinnati Financial Corporation's annual meeting of shareholders. I am Ken Stecher, Chairman of the Board of Cincinnati Financial. At this time, I would formally like to call the meeting to order. If any registered shareholder wishes to turn in your proxy, please raise your hand and one of the inspectors of election will come and collect that. Also, if anyone wishes to vote in person, please let us know and come see one of the inspectors of election, and they will help you work through that process. Now I will ask Lisa Love, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary, to read the notice of the meeting. Lisa?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certify that on March 7, 2014, notice of the annual meeting of shareholders was mailed to those persons who were shareholders of record of the company on February 28, 2014. That notice provided that the annual meeting be held at 9:30 A.M. on Saturday, April 26, 2014, at the Cincinnati Art Museum, and that the items of business to be considered at the meeting are: electing 15 directors for one-year terms, ratifying the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2014, voting on a non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers, voting to reapprove the performance objectives of the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan, voting on a shareholder proposal, if properly introduced at the meeting, and transacting such other business as may properly come before the meeting.
I will include a copy of the notice along with the minutes of the meeting in the company's records.
Thank you, Lisa. Let me now introduce our appointed inspectors of election. Molly Grimm, Cincinnati Insurance Assistant Vice President, Chuck Hertlein, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP, Tom Hogan, Cincinnati Insurance Company Vice President and Corporate Counsel, Brandon McIntosh, Cincinnati Insurance Senior Shareholder Services Manager, and Todd Pendery, Cincinnati Insurance Vice President. Inspectors, please tabulate the shares represented in person or by proxy at this meeting. While the inspectors tabulate the shares, let me follow with some introductions. First, I would like to introduce your company's directors. Please hold your applause until the end, and we'll recognize all of our directors at once. I would ask the directors to please stand when they are named.
The nominees for election at this year's meeting are Bill Bahl, Greg Bier, Linda Clement-Holmes, Dirk Debbink, Steve Johnston, Ken Lichtendahl, Rodney McMullen, David Osborn, Gretchen Price, John Jack Schiff Jr., Tom Schiff, Doug Skidmore, John Steele Jr., and Larry Webb. I am also standing for re-election at today's meeting. Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of shareholders of Cincinnati Financial. I also now like to pause just a moment to thank a valued board member and long-term friend, Tony Woods, who is not standing for re-election this year. Throughout his career, Tony has honed his financial and business acumen by leading public and private companies to meet shareholder expectations. He generously shared that knowledge with us, enhancing board discussions and increasing the value of your company. Tony, thank you for your service and your friendship. Tony, would you mind standing?
In addition to serving as Directors, Jack and Steve serve as company officers. Jack is Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Steve is President and Chief Executive Officer. Also on stage with us are Mike Sewell, Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President, and Treasurer. J.F. Scherer, Chief Insurance Officer and Executive Vice President of The Cincinnati Insurance Company. Marty Hollenbeck, Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President, and President and Chief Operating Officer of CFC Investment Company. Dave Popplewell, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Cincinnati Life Insurance Company. You already have met Lisa Love, who is our Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary. We have many officers in attendance today, and right now I would like them to stand, if they don't mind, to be recognized. Also, if there is any other associates from Cincinnati Financial, if they would stand.
I think all of us as shareholders would recognize that without their efforts and their dedication to our company, they help contribute to the success of our organization. I would like to take a few minutes and also introduce some other guests that we have today. From Deloitte & Touche, our independent registered public accounting firm, we have Scott Shirk, Steve Suholtz, Matt Riggs, and Matt Brackman. They will be available to answer questions later if anyone has anything. I know I have seen a couple Directors who have served in the past. Bob Morgan is here and Alan Weiler. I hope I didn't miss anybody else, but if they would please stand, I would appreciate that.
And Jim Banowsky.
I forgot Jim Banowsky till I just saw him there. Jim, welcome. I know Ted Altschulsky, our retired Chief Financial Officer, is here.
Ted, thank you for coming. Then as customary, we tried to gather a list of first-timers, and we have quite a few today. I will introduce those. Bob Elliott, Nina Sulewski, Will Vande Heuvel. You will hear a little bit about more Will later. John Bascom, Monty Trottier, Tim Peters, Don Brockmeier, Sonya Pope, and Ann Ashmund. Welcome to those individuals. Paul Johnson, who is our life field rep from Minnesota, we believe traveled the furthest to attend this meeting. Thank you, Paul. Then the youngest we have is Brett Starr, who has brought three of his young children, and he promised me that they are well-behaved. All will be good. Thank you all for attending today. This is the 31st consecutive year we have held our shareholder meeting here at the Cincinnati Art Museum.
We thank Aaron Betsky, museum director, and museum staff for making this wonderful facility available for us. At this time, the inspectors may be ready with proxies. Mr. McIntosh, how many shares will be represented at this meeting?
Mr. Chairman, we, the undersigned inspectors of election, duly appointed to act at the annual meeting of shareholders of Cincinnati Financial Corporation held on the 26th day of April, 2014, respectfully report as follows. Number of shares represented in person, zero. Number of shares represented by proxy, 144,651,334. Total number of shares represented, 144,651,334. That is 88% of the shares outstanding. Respectfully submitted, Chuck Hertlein, Molly Grimm, Tom Hogan, Todd Pendery, and Brandon McIntosh.
Thank you, Brandon. We have a quorum present, and the meeting may proceed. Is there a motion to waive the reading of the minutes from the last shareholder meeting of April 27th, 2013?
Mr. Chairman, I move to waive the reading of the minutes of the last annual meeting of shareholders and to approve the minutes as written.
Thank you, Lisa. Is there a second? Thank you. Is there any discussion? All in favor?
Aye.
Any opposed? Motion carried. Thank you very much. We have five items of business to present this year before the inspectors tally the votes. I'd like to also note that the polls are now open for each matter to be voted on at this meeting. The first is the election of directors. To nominate the slate of directors listed on the proxy statement, I call Melissa Brunner, Cincinnati Insurance Secretary of Corporate Tax.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman. I hereby nominate William F. Bahl, Gregory T. Bier, Linda W. Clement-Holmes, Dirk J. Debbink, Steven J. Johnston, Kenneth C. Lichtendahl, W. Rodney McMullen, David P. Osborn, Gretchen W. Price, John J. Schiff Jr., Thomas R. Schiff, Douglas S. Skidmore, Kenneth W. Stecher, John F. Steele Jr., and Larry R. Webb for election as directors of the company to serve for the terms ending on the date of the annual meeting of shareholders in 2015 and until their successors are elected.
Thank you, Melissa. Are there any other nominations? Seeing none, I declare the nominations closed. The second order of business is to ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2014. To present this proposal, I call on Eric Mathews, Cincinnati Financial Vice President and Principal Accounting Officer.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders ratify the selection of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2014.
Thank you, Eric. Is there any discussion at this time? Seeing none, the third order of business is voting on a non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers. To present this proposal, I call on Betsy Ertel, Cincinnati Insurance Secretary for Corporate Communications.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders approve the non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers.
Thank you, Betsy. Is there any discussion on this proposal? The fourth order of business is to reapprove the performance objectives for the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan. To present this proposal, I call on Teresa Cracas, Cincinnati Insurance Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer.
Mr. Chairman, I propose that shareholders reapprove the performance objectives for the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan.
Thank you, Teresa. Is there any discussion on this proposal? The fifth and last order of business is the shareholder proposal requesting initiation of processes to adopt majority voting in uncontested director elections. I now call on Bob Elliott, a representative of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Pension Fund, to present this proposal.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the opportunity to introduce our majority vote shareholder proposal that we believe advances an important corporate governance reform. The majority vote proposal urges the board to establish a majority vote standard in uncontested director elections. A majority vote standard in a director election establishes a meaningful vote threshold and provides shareholders important voting rights to elect or un-elect directors. The standard is particularly well-suited for the vast majority of director elections in which only board-nominated candidates are on the ballot. We strongly believe that the combination of majority vote standard with a director resignation policy, such as the company has adopted, establishes a strong director election process that best serves the interests of the company and its shareholders.
The majority vote standard sets a meaningful vote threshold for directors, and a director resignation policy provides a post-election process in which the board can exercise its judgment and make decisions concerning the status of unelected directors in the best interests of the company. As of this date, 87% of the S&P 500 index of companies and many Cincinnati Financial peer companies, such as Chubb Corporation, Hartford Financial, Allstate Corporation, and Travelers Companies, have established a majority vote standard in director elections. Each of these companies has taken the additional step to combine its majority vote standard with a post-election director resignation policy. We appreciate the positive and constructive dialogue with the company executives on majority vote and other governance issues over recent years. In the absence of the adoption of a majority vote standard, we feel it is important that this issue go before the shareholders.
We urge Cincinnati Financial to join the mainstream of American corporations and establish a majority vote standard in their director elections. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Bob. The board's statement in opposition to the proposal is included in the proxy statement distributed to shareholders. Is there any discussion at this time? Again, I would invite any registered shareholders present who want to vote in person to come down and see the Inspectors of Election or raise your hand, and we will come to you for your comments. Seeing and hearing none, if there is no further discussion on the proposals and no further business at this time, the polls will now close for each matter to be voted on at this meeting. While the Inspectors of Election are tallying your votes, Steve and I will talk about your company's 2013 performance and trends that may affect 2014 and beyond.
You have an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the meeting, so please let us know if you want to hear more on any subject. As we begin, please bear with me. I have to read this safe harbor. Let me remind you that some of the matters we will discuss are forward-looking and may involve certain risks and uncertainties. You may refer to various filings with the SEC for factors that could cause results to differ materially from those discussed. You can find reconciliations for non-GAAP measures in our most recent quarterly earnings news release, which is available on the investors page of our website, cincfin.com. The success that Cincinnati Financial achieved in 2013 is a testament to the power and the strategy to partner with and support independent agents. Together, we can be everything insurance should be for the people and businesses they serve.
Standing firm on our core values, we're developing new ways for our agents to share the value of Cincinnati Insurance. Leveraging traditional and new media, such as the infographic you see on the slide, we are helping agents explain how Cincinnati is differentiated in the marketplace by our broad product offerings, exceptional claims service, and financial strength. We are moving forward with confidence that we have the knowledge and tools to keep building value for shareholders, policyholders, agents, and associates. In the past few months, we've added two individuals who will contribute to that confidence. In November, we welcomed David Osborn to our board of directors. David is president of Osborn, Dennis, and Ramey in Idaho, a Cincinnati independent investment advisory firm. He leads his firm's dividend growth strategy team, making him a great fit for our company.
He brings the perspective of an independent business owner and a veteran investment professional, complementing the strengths of other directors. In January, we added Will VandeHeuvel to lead our personal lines insurance operations. He brings proven leadership abilities and a vision for the future of how our personal lines operations can evolve to support our agents' needs. He has jumped in with both feet, getting to know agents in sales meetings and learning firsthand about the strong relationships we enjoy with them. He's working closely with our experienced personal lines management team to research and identify new opportunities in the area of this business. Your company's directors and senior leadership team believe in managing our business and our relationships with a long-term focus. Building value for shareholders is no exception. Your company returned a total of $315 million to shareholders in 2013.
To return capital to shareholders, our main preference is cash dividends. In January, the board raised the indicated annual dividend to $1.76 per share. This action sets the stage for extending our record of increasing our dividend for the 54th year. This is a streak we believe is matched by only nine other companies. However, being part of the insurance industry goes much deeper than financial rewards. It's easy to forget that we work in a great industry. Our industry participates in increasing safety standards for motorists and construction workers, and in providing financial peace of mind for entrepreneurs and large corporations alike. For local communities around the country, independent agents like those who are dedicated support become a trusted partner, aiding in the success of the people and businesses they serve. Isn't that really everything insurance should be?
Your company's management team is pleased with the progress your company has made to improve performance, and with our plans to continue profitability to profitably grow our insurance operations. To share with you details of our progress, welcome Cincinnati Financial Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Johnston.
Good morning, everyone. It's great to see so many involved shareholders. Once again today, we're going to review our strategy, our goals, how we're doing towards achieving those goals. It's extremely important with strategy to focus on winning. Strategy is all about winning. The first thing you need to do is to describe a winning vision and an aspirational vision of who you want to be. Our vision is quite simply to be the best company serving independent agents. We were formed by independent agents to serve independent agents. Everything that we do strategically revolves around combining our talents with the talents of our extremely valuable insurance agents to grow value. This is our vision. In terms of our strategy, this diagram shows our strategy. There are four pillars. The first pillar, very importantly, is the focus on the independent agent. We're only represented by about 1,500 independent agents.
We're deeply aligned. We think it's a complete competitive advantage, the quality of the independent agents that represent The Cincinnati Insurance Company. Another competitive advantage is our field people. We only have one home office. All of our field people work from their homes in the communities with the agencies where they're able to assess risk, to get and build relationships with the agents and their clients. Again, this is an extreme competitive advantage for our companies. A third competitive advantage is our claims department. Our claims people are multi-line. They're assigned to agencies. They're out in the field, and we get rave reviews about our claims department, the way they handle catastrophes, the way they handle claims on a day-to-day basis, another significant competitive advantage. The fourth pillar of our strategy is financial strength. We sell a promise. We need to be there to deliver on that promise.
We're A+ rated by AM Best. As you'll see later, we have over $6 billion in GAAP equity supporting about $4 billion in net written premium. Very importantly, all these strategies are not important if you do not do it in the right way. We put our strategy on the foundation of ethical behavior. We strive to execute on the golden rule, to treat people the way that we would want to be treated. We don't seek awards, but we were happy and have been happy four times now in a row, Forbes has recognized us for our trustworthiness. This year, they came out with a new category, America's 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies.
Just came out recently, we're happy to say, based on objective criteria for openness and integrity in accounting, governance, management, we received the top score, the top-rated company in terms of trustworthiness in that category. Thank you very much. How are we doing towards those goals? Well, first, let's describe the goals. Our primary financial goal is the value creation ratio. We want that to be between 10%-13%. The value creation ratio, again, is the combination of the growth in our book value plus our dividend contribution. To achieve that, we have here our operational goals that we think will drive the value of shareholders. Number 1 is to get the $5 billion in direct written premium by 2015. Secondly, we need to do that profitably with a combined ratio of 95% or better.
With our focus on the agents, being meaningful to agents, our third goal is to be Number 1, continue to be Number 1 or Number 2 in 75% of the agencies that we've been in for five years or more. Fourth goal, investing is very important to Cincinnati Financial to outperform the S&P 500 in terms of the performance of our portfolio, our equity portfolio. How are we doing? We'll go through some slides here to show how we are doing. In terms of achieving the $5 billion, these charts or bars show from 2009 to 2013 how we've done in terms of growing our direct written premium, including life insurance. You can see it's a nice steady trend. We were up double digits last year. I think very impressively, there are five years shown here, which describes four years of growth.
We're up over $1 billion in premium volume over that period of time. It's been very much fueled by our agents and the new business that they have been able to produce. 2012, when we were here last year describing, we went over a half a billion dollars in new business, $501 million. Had never been there in the history of the company. This year, 2013, we topped it with another new record, $543 million of new business. I think it's also important to look at things in a relative basis. How are we doing relative to the competition? What we've done here is, for the past five years, we have bars for each of the industry, our peer group, and Cincinnati Financial to show the growth over that five-year period and how we've recovered from the financial crisis that we were in.
You can see in 2009, everybody was negative. The industry is the orange bar on the far left, the peer group, the green bar in the middle, Cincinnati Financial, the blue bar to the right. All negative, you can see we've recovered. Look how nicely the blue bars have accelerated and have outperformed both the industry and the peer group. I'm also happy to say that for the most part, the peer group has outperformed the industry, which shows that we are picking a peer group that is doing better than the industry. These last two years in particular, with double-digit growth, all organic, where the peer group is going to have some acquisition in there, as you can see in 2009. All good organic growth outpacing both the industry and the peer group. Similarly, with profit, we have to do it profitably.
This next slide shows our combined ratio against both the industry and the peer group. Same colors, same number of years. You can see, after having some underperformance and having some weather issues, the first three years show we had an unacceptably high combined ratio over 100. In fact, if we went back another year, we had four years in a row with combined ratios over 100. In the last two years, 2012, 2013, all the initiatives that had been put in place prior to that kicked into gear, steady improvement with a combined ratio of 96.1 in 2012, and I think helped by some mild weather last year, even improved to 93.8 in 2013.
I think it is important to show that in these instances, we are outperforming both the peer group, which is the green bar, and the industry, we need to continue to keep that improvement going. Good, profitable growth. That good profitable growth is paying off in our operating and net income. As you can see here, we've had nice steady growth, finishing with $3.12 of net income, $2.80 of operating income. The only difference is realized capital gains. Again, nice steady progress. I still like to point out 2011. We had the two worst catastrophes in the history of the company in the same year, we're still able to post positive earnings. We're also being buoyed by our investment department, Marty Hollenbeck. Here are the unrealized gains of our investment portfolio.
Again, look at the nice steady growth from just over $1 billion back in 2009 to now over $2.3 billion, $2.4 billion currently. We've had over $1 billion pre-tax growth, unrealized gains. It's just outstanding in this environment. All that adds up to our balance sheet, which gives us ample capacity to grow. This shows both our statutory surplus and our GAAP equity over the five-year period. The light blue bars are the statutory surplus. The darker blue bars would be the GAAP equity. In terms of the statutory surplus, we still run our company at less than a one-to-one premium to surplus. In terms of the green bar or the darker blue bars, we're now up over $6 billion in GAAP equity. When I met Jack Schiff Jr., he told me that Cincinnati Financial has never been constrained to grow from a lack of capital.
We've kept that going. Just like you saw in the premium, over that five-year period, which is four years of growth, over $1 billion in growth in the GAAP equity of the company, we've got plenty of capacity to grow. We divide that by the number of shares to get the book value per share. We can look at this on a relative basis. This is the growth in our book value per share over a five-year period. We're the blue bars. The peer group is the green bars. Again, you can see nice, steady improvement and good growth, particularly in the last couple of years, outstripping the peer group in terms of the growth of our book value, which we need to keep going. When we add that all up, we get to the value creation ratio.
I always like to talk about this slide. I think it's crucial. It's why we choose the value creation ratio, which is the book value growth plus the dividend contribution. What we do is we start with $1 invested in 1987 with this chart. The light blue lines would be the growth in the value creation ratio, the dark blue lines, the growth in the total return of Cincinnati stock. You can see how tightly they are correlated. The value creation ratio really does drive the growth in the stock. That $1 invested back in 1987 in terms of the value creation ratio is now over $25 per share. The total shareholder return over $30. You can see that our strategy is working. The business model has worked successfully since 1951, and it's being recognized in the stock price.
I also like to drive this home in terms of a relative performance basis. With this chart, we add a green line which represents the S&P 500. The green line would be, were you to invest that $1 in an S&P 500 index back in 1987, it has grown nicely to just under $15 a share, but you can see the performance of the Cincinnati relative to the S&P 500 over that period of time, more than double in terms of total shareholder return. This is a very important slide, and again, ties home our strategy to our primary financial goal. We just released our earnings Thursday for the first quarter 2014. As you can see here, we grew 7%. We had good rate movement in excess of our loss cost trends. I think even more importantly, we're really segregating our book.
We're picking and keeping on to those with the highest profit potential and getting rate on those that need it. It's a very balanced approach. It resulted in $91 million in net income and it grew our book value again to $37.73. Good growth in the first quarter. The combined ratio was 100.3. That's unacceptable to us. It was driven by the severe winter weather that we had, all the freezing, which resulted in a lot of freezing pipes, a lot of weather-related damages. That's our business. That's what we do. That's why people buy insurance. It gives our claims people a great chance to show the value of Cincinnati Insurance and why they buy Cincinnati Insurance. I think it was a positive quarter. We do need to improve upon it.
It's off to a slower start than we were last year, but I think all the initiatives that we have in place will continue to see and produce improvements in the company. Again, to reiterate our goals here, the value creation ratio, double digit between 10% and 13%, get to $5 billion in premium by 2015, do it profitably with a combined ratio of 95% or better, and outperform the S&P 500 with our equity portfolio. I think you can be confident that we'll do that. We're delivering new products. We've had great success with the delivery of excess and surplus lines. It's been doing fantastically. We've now added new target markets, which are also driving new growth. As Ken mentioned, we've added expertise in personal lines and Will VandeHeuvel, which should give us that much more opportunity in the affluent space.
We are driving improvements in technology led by John Kellington. Our data and the ability to use that data with analytics, which is extremely important. I think more important than anything else is the investment that we're making in our people. We're adding good, strong, qualified people, putting them to work out in the communities with the agencies, understanding risk, helping them to help their clients mitigate risk, tailor coverages that are appropriate, price it appropriate. As long as we continue to execute this great strategy that we have, you should be confident that Cincinnati Financial Corporation has not even scratched the surface on where we can go in the future. Thank you very much for your interest in the company, for your being a shareholder. Thank you very much. Thank you. With that, we'll turn the business meeting back over to Mr. Ken Stecher. Ken.
Thank you, Steve. We've heard yes from the inspectors of election. I'd like to remind shareholders of a service we can provide for you. Shareholders of record can choose to hold their shares in electronic form instead of keeping track of the paper certificates. We want to make it easy for you to own our stock and to reinvest the dividends. If anyone would like to inquire about that, please talk to our shareholder services department. Inspectors, do you have the preliminary results for the voting?
Mr. Chairman, we, the undersigned inspectors of election, duly appointed to act at the annual meeting of shareholders of Cincinnati Financial Corporation, held on the 26th day of April, 2014, hereby submit our preliminary report on results of the voting. For the first proposal, the election of directors, each of this year's nominees received votes for their election of at least 91% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting. For the second proposal, approximately 99% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of ratification of the appointment Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent audit firm. For the third proposal, approximately 96% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers.
For the fourth proposal, approximately 96% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of reapproving the performance objectives for the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan. For the fifth proposal, approximately 45% of the shares present or represented and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of allowing initiation of processes to adopt majority voting in uncontested director elections. Respectfully submitted, Molly Grimm, Chuck Hertlein, Tom Hogan, Brandon McIntosh, and Todd Pendery.
Thank you, Molly. It appears all directors have been elected. The proposals to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as the company's independent accounting firm, the non-binding proposal to approve the compensation for the company's named executive officers, and the proposal to reapprove the performance objectives of the Cincinnati Financial Corporation 2009 Incentive Compensation Plan have passed. The shareholder proposal requesting initiation of processes to adopt majority voting in uncontested director elections did not pass. The inspectors of election will furnish the corporate secretary with a written report of the final vote count with respect to the matters voted on today to be included in the minutes of this meeting. We'll announce final results once they are certified early next week. At this time, we would like to welcome your questions. We want to learn more about your interest in our business.
Please come down to one of the two microphones we've set up to share your comment or ask your question. That we can keep the meeting on schedule and allow everyone to speak who wishes to, please keep your comments or questions to two minutes or less. Steve, would you please join me at the lectern to help with questions?
Is this on or not? My name is Hank Wagner. I am a stockholder of the company. Two questions. Number 1, I saw in the annual report that BlackRock is now the number 1 holding in the company for investment. Last year, it was five. I wonder why that came up so much. Number 2, are you concerned or not concerned that nearly 25% of the company is owned by either large hedge funds or investment companies?
Thank you. That's a great question. We are not concerned with those ownerships. The firms, I think, recognize the value that we have. They're investing either for their constituencies or their holding shares that are invested for the constituencies. We think that they're just recognizing the value that you saw presented up here, the growth in dividends that we've seen, as Ken mentioned, 53 years in a row now, going on 54. We have an outreach where we meet with our investors regularly. We'll go out, Jim Scherer, Mike Sewell, Dennis McDaniel, and myself, and present the performance of Cincinnati, our prospects for the future. We feel that these are good and valid owners, and we are not alarmed by the percentage that we're at this point. Really appreciate the question. Good one.
Are there any further questions? Unless there is other business for today's meeting, I request a motion to adjourn.
Moved.
Is there a second? We stand adjourned. Just give me a second. I would like to mention that you are welcome to tour the entire art museum, including special exhibits "From the Village to the Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith" and "Todd Pavlisko: Crown," beginning at 11:00 A.M. this morning. As a special treat, Aaron Betsky, museum director, will lead a tour of "Genius and Grace," a traveling exhibit that is currently at the museum. If you'd like to attend that, please meet in the lobby outside the auditorium at 10:30 A.M. Thank you very much for your presence today, and we look forward to seeing you again.