dividend yesterday after announcing substantial second quarter losses.

The company blamed 1999 storms for quarterly losses of $23.527 million, or $2.07 per share, earlier this month.

The dividend will be paid on September 20 to stockholders of record on September 6.

PXRE Group Ltd. also received an A rating and a revised negative outlook from A.M. Best Company.

The move was prompted by the company's recent earnings release and discussions with management regarding reported operating losses of $34.2 million for the six months ended June 30, 2000.

A.M. Best had expected a fair degree of operating volatility from the group's property catastrophe reinsurance operations. But the analysts said that the company's operating performance in the last three years has been significantly below historical trends and reflects the group's declining premium base and profitability. A.M. Best said this was caused by PXRE's continued concentration in its catastrophe-related products that have been susceptible to market competition and rate degradation.

The revision of PXRE Re Group's rating outlook to negative also reflects uncertainties with the company's aggressive growth in premiums through a diversification of its strategy.

A.M. Best said front-end expenses have caused operating profitability to deteriorate and said that the company's difficulty in accurately predicting casualty losses have been exacerbated by the limited amount of statistically significant data on historical losses.

A.M. Best said it will closely monitor PXRE's on-going operating performance for indications of further deterioration and warned that further losses could result in a downgraded rating.