Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT Stock Holdings Lifted by Bessemer Group Inc.

Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 506,735 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,437 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. owned about 0.54% of Essent Group worth $29,614,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Essent Group by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,987,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $779,336,000 after acquiring an additional 85,295 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Essent Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,983,000. CWM LLC grew its position in Essent Group by 132.2% in the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 42,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,756,000 after acquiring an additional 24,139 shares in the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Essent Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,485,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth $1,136,000. 93.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on ESNT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Essent Group from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $67.71.

Essent Group Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $66.67 on Friday. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12 month low of $55.34 and a 12 month high of $67.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The business’s 50 day moving average is $61.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.26. The company has a market cap of $6.14 billion, a PE ratio of 9.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.76.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 53.64% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.24 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essent Group news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total transaction of $480,640.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 237,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,970,293.86. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 29,329 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.35, for a total transaction of $1,916,650.15. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,184,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,733,745.05. This trade represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 64,779 shares of company stock valued at $4,198,358 in the last quarter. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

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.