Essent Group (ESNT) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a Bermuda-based holding company that provides private mortgage insurance and related risk-management services in the United States. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps protect mortgage lenders and investors against losses when borrowers default on residential mortgage loans.

Its principal business is mortgage insurance for low-down-payment conventional residential mortgages, enabling qualified borrowers to obtain home financing with less than a 20% down payment. Essent serves mortgage lenders, originators, and other participants in the housing finance market, primarily through its U.S. mortgage insurance subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, Inc.

Essent was founded in 2008 and became a publicly traded company in 2013. The group also has reinsurance operations and uses risk-transfer and capital-management strategies in support of its mortgage insurance business. Its activities are concentrated in the U.S. residential housing market, while the parent company is domiciled in Bermuda.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $67.68 to $68.40
• 50-Day Range: $58.02 to $69.69
• 52-Week Range: $55.34 to $70.37
• Volume: 133,896 shs
• Average Volume: 744,284 shs
• Market Capitalization: $6.11 billion
• P/E Ratio: 9.49
• Dividend Yield: 2.06%
• Price Target: $70.75
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Essent Group Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Essent Group scored higher than 63% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 464th out of 859 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 2.4 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Essent Group has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.30, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 3 buy ratings, 7 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside/Downside

The consensus price target for Essent Group is close to its current price, suggesting limited near-term upside or downside.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Essent Group has been the subject of 8 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 1.9 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 2.51%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Essent Group are expected to grow by 2.51% in the coming year, from $7.58 to $7.77 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Essent Group is 9.51, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 27.04.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Essent Group is 9.51, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 21.22.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Essent Group has a PEG Ratio of 1.64. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Essent Group has a P/B Ratio of 1.15. P/B Ratios below 3 indicates that a company is reasonably valued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 2.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Bearish

Percentage of Shares Shorted

4.44% of the float of Essent Group has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Essent Group has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 4.81.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Essent Group has recently increased by 14.70%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Essent Group pays a meaningful dividend of 2.13%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Essent Group has been increasing its dividend for 6 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Essent Group is 19.53%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Essent Group will have a dividend payout ratio of 18.02% next year. This indicates that Essent Group will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 1.8 / 5
• News Sentiment: -0.14

News Sentiment

Essent Group has a news sentiment score of -0.14. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a lower news sentiment than the 0.67 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 10 news articles for Essent Group this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week.

Search Interest

3 people have searched for ESNT on MarketBeat in the last 30 days.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.6 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Essent Group insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $4,900,365.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

3.60% of the stock of Essent Group is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

93.00% of the stock of Essent Group is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Last Earnings: 6/30/2026
• Record date for 9/10 Dividend: 8/31/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 9/10 Dividend: 8/31/2026
• Dividend Payable: 9/10/2026
• Today: 11/03/2026
• Next Earnings (Estimated): 11/06/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Finance
• Industry: Financial Services
• Sub-Industry: Commercial & Residential Mortgage Finance
• Current Symbol: NYSE:ESNT
• CIK: 1448893
• Web: ir.essentgroup.com
• Phone: (441) 297-9901
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 518
• Year Founded: 2008

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Essent Group: $70.75
• High Price Target: $80.00
• Low Price Target: $63.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +3.8%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.30
• Research Coverage: 10 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $7.17
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 9.51
• Forward P/E Ratio: 8.78
• P/E Growth: 1.64
• Net Income: $689.97 million
• Net Margins: 51.45%
• Pretax Margin: 62.04%
• Return on Equity: 11.91%
• Return on Assets: 9.09%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.09
• Current Ratio: 1.18
• Quick Ratio: 1.18

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.26 billion
• Price / Sales: 4.86
• Cash Flow: $7.63 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 8.94
• Book Value: $59.55 per share
• Price / Book: 1.15

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 89,880,000
• Free Float: 86,640,000
• Market Cap: $6.13 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.76