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

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $66.5714.

ESNT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Weiss Ratings raised Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Barclays lifted their price target on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 9th.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $64.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a current ratio of 1.32. Essent Group has a 52 week low of $55.22 and a 52 week high of $67.09. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $60.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.33. The company has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.14. Essent Group had a net margin of 53.64% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The company had revenue of $336.07 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $297.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.69 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Essent Group will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essent Group

In other Essent Group news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 4,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total transaction of $276,292.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 233,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,169,173.36. This represents a 1.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO David B. Weinstock sold 5,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total value of $349,305.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,254,223.94. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,077 shares of company stock worth $2,255,620. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Essent Group by 0.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 85,295 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Essent Group by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,076,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $206,628,000 after buying an additional 129,672 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth about $155,516,000. Cooke & Bieler LP boosted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,952,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,900,000 after buying an additional 13,318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 43.7% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,864,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,183,000 after buying an additional 567,103 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.00% 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.