Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Essent Group Ltd. has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from eight brokerages, with an average twelve-month price objective of $63.67.
• Insider selling activity has been reported, with Director William Spiegel selling 6,451 shares and CFO David B. Weinstock selling 2,500 shares recently.
• Essent Group issued a quarterly dividend of $0.31 per share, with an annualized yield of 2.0% and a payout ratio of 18.1%.

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $63.6667.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Essent Group from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. set a $60.00 price objective on Essent Group in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Essent Group from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Compass Point restated a "buy" rating on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Friday, August 8th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Essent Group news, Director William Spiegel sold 6,451 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.74, for a total transaction of $404,735.74. Following the sale, the director owned 26,252 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,647,050.48. The trade was a 19.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO David B. Weinstock sold 2,500 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Monday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.33, for a total value of $158,325.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 24,865 shares in the company, valued at $1,574,700.45. The trade was a 9.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,190 shares of company stock worth $1,802,316 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 2.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Essent Group

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Essent Group by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,399,228 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $311,638,000 after acquiring an additional 230,553 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 78.9% in 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 buying an additional 669,577 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the 2nd quarter worth $75,596,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,027,429 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $62,396,000 after buying an additional 45,606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 1,272.6% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 970,969 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $56,044,000 after buying an additional 900,229 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company's stock.

Essent Group Price Performance

Shares of ESNT opened at $62.16 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $6.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.07, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $61.75 and a 200-day moving average of $58.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. Essent Group has a 52 week low of $51.61 and a 52 week high of $65.90.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, August 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $319.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $317.46 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.66% and a net margin of 56.36%.The business's revenue was up 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.91 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Essent Group will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Essent Group's payout ratio is currently 18.10%.

About Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. The company also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and title insurance and settlement services.

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