Capital International Investors Cuts Stock Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT

Key Points

• Capital International Investors reduced its Essent Group stake by 5.7% in the fourth quarter, selling 114,112 shares and ending with 1.87 million shares worth about $121.9 million.
• Several insiders sold stock in late April, including CEO Mark Casale and SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons; insiders have sold 25,814 shares worth $1.66 million over the last 90 days.
• Essent Group reported better-than-expected Q1 results, with EPS of $1.82 versus $1.68 expected and revenue of $336.1 million, while also declaring a quarterly dividend of $0.35 per share.

Capital International Investors lowered its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT - Free Report) by 5.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,874,398 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 114,112 shares during the period. Capital International Investors owned approximately 1.94% of Essent Group worth $121,855,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Essent Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Vestcor Inc raised its stake in Essent Group by 671.0% during the fourth quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 8,388 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $545,000 after purchasing an additional 7,300 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in Essent Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $6,668,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Essent Group by 45.0% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the period. Finally, Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new position in Essent Group during the fourth quarter worth approximately $463,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essent Group

In related news, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,218,480 shares of the company's stock, valued at $144,312,124. The trade was a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 4,250 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 233,336 shares in the company, valued at $15,169,173.36. This trade represents a 1.79% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 25,814 shares of company stock worth $1,661,682 in the last ninety days. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Essent Group from a "buy (b)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Essent Group from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $66.43.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $56.91 on Tuesday. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $60.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.55. Essent Group Ltd. has a 52 week low of $55.22 and a 52 week high of $67.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.78.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $297.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.69 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Monday, June 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. Essent Group's payout ratio is 19.94%.

Essent Group Company Profile

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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