Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Analyst consensus "Hold": Eleven analysts give Essent an average rating of "Hold" (six hold, five buy) with a 1-year average price target of $67.86.
• Heavy institutional interest: Large investors have been active—Norges Bank opened a $155.5M position and institutional investors own about 93% of the company.
• Mixed financials and higher payout: Essent missed quarterly EPS ($1.60 vs. $1.74 est.) but reported strong margins and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.35 (annualized $1.40, ~2.3% yield).

Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eleven analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $67.8571.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on ESNT shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b+)" rating on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Roth Mkm increased their target price on Essent Group from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. UBS Group lowered their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on Essent Group from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 6th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Essent Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESNT. Norges Bank bought a new position in Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth $155,516,000. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Essent Group by 78.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,517,859 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $92,180,000 after acquiring an additional 669,577 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth $27,983,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Essent Group by 45.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,198,447 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $76,173,000 after acquiring an additional 372,881 shares during the period. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its stake in Essent Group by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,938,688 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $123,223,000 after acquiring an additional 318,318 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company's stock.

Essent Group Price Performance

NYSE:ESNT opened at $62.18 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $59.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.87. Essent Group has a 12-month low of $53.31 and a 12-month high of $67.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $312.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $312.62 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 54.72%.Essent Group's revenue for the quarter was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.58 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Essent Group will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is an increase from Essent Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. Essent Group's dividend payout ratio is 20.32%.

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.

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