California Public Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Assurant, Inc. $AIZ

California Public Employees Retirement System reduced its position in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 18.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 206,053 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 46,660 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.41% of Assurant worth $40,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Assurant by 1.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,775,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,338,041,000 after purchasing an additional 88,749 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Assurant by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,051,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $800,054,000 after buying an additional 310,455 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of Assurant by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,245,022 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $245,879,000 after acquiring an additional 53,773 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Assurant by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 889,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $186,533,000 after acquiring an additional 72,046 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Assurant by 1.1% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 841,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $176,401,000 after acquiring an additional 9,142 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Assurant from $232.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Assurant from $248.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $238.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Truist Financial set a $255.00 target price on shares of Assurant in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Assurant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.00.

Assurant Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE AIZ opened at $222.67 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.15 billion, a PE ratio of 13.55 and a beta of 0.57. Assurant, Inc. has a 12 month low of $174.97 and a 12 month high of $232.02. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $219.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $208.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 24th. The financial services provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter. Assurant had a net margin of 6.75% and a return on equity of 18.61%. Assurant has set its FY 2022 guidance at $13.062-$13.512 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 29th. Investors of record on Monday, December 1st will be paid a $0.88 dividend. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. This is an increase from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 1st. Assurant’s payout ratio is currently 21.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assurant news, CEO Keith Demmings sold 13,725 shares of Assurant stock in a transaction on Friday, October 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.52, for a total transaction of $3,026,637.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 84,647 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,666,356.44. The trade was a 13.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.51% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assurant Company Profile

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.