Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seven brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $59.25.

ESNT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $61.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 6th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Essent Group news, Director Douglas J. Pauls sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $140,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,112 shares in the company, valued at $1,521,525.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James & Associates grew its holdings in Essent Group by 12.4% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 13,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $661,000 after purchasing an additional 1,544 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 32.4% during the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 67,129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,175,000 after buying an additional 16,420 shares during the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP purchased a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the third quarter worth approximately $466,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,118,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,903,000 after acquiring an additional 289,937 shares during the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 227,375 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $10,753,000 after acquiring an additional 695 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESNT opened at $56.19 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a PE ratio of 8.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.05. Essent Group has a 1 year low of $43.27 and a 1 year high of $59.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $55.78 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.45.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The financial services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 61.40%. The business had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $298.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.59 EPS. Essent Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Essent Group will post 6.73 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 16.94%.

About Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. The company also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and title insurance and settlement services.