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

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $66.4286.

Several research firms have weighed in on ESNT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Essent Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Essent Group in a report on Friday, May 22nd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded Essent Group from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays upped their target price on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Essent Group news, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,218,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,312,124. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total value of $480,640.28. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 237,586 shares in the company, valued at $14,970,293.86. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,814 shares of company stock worth $1,661,682 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Essent Group

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 4,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $211,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares in the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 45.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 51,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,302,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Essent Group Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE:ESNT opened at $56.91 on Tuesday. Essent Group has a 1 year low of $55.22 and a 1 year high of $67.09. The company has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $60.48 and its 200 day moving average is $61.55.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.The company had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $297.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.69 EPS. Essent Group’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Essent Group will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 19.94%.

About Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a publicly traded insurance holding company specializing in private mortgage insurance and mortgage reinsurance solutions. Through its primary subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, the company provides credit protection to mortgage lenders, helping mitigate the risk of borrower default on residential mortgage loans. Essent’s insurance policies enable lenders to offer low-down-payment programs, supporting homebuyers in achieving homeownership with reduced upfront equity requirements.

Beyond traditional mortgage insurance, Essent offers a suite of risk management and analytics services designed to help financial institutions monitor and manage mortgage portfolios.