Focus Partners Wealth Sells 72,581 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Focus Partners Wealth reduced its stake in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ - Free Report) by 97.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,589 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 72,581 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in Assurant were worth $342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Ethic Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 15.9% during the 4th quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 8,015 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,709,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101 shares in the last quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC. now owns 394,044 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $84,018,000 after purchasing an additional 14,610 shares during the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 607,458 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $129,522,000 after purchasing an additional 7,211 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 25.9% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 550,782 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $117,438,000 after purchasing an additional 113,247 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dean Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Dean Capital Management now owns 10,054 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,144,000 after purchasing an additional 172 shares during the last quarter. 92.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AIZ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $217.00 price objective on shares of Assurant and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assurant from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Assurant from $224.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of Assurant from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $228.67.

Insider Transactions at Assurant

In related news, EVP Jay Rosenblum sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.93, for a total value of $201,930.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,775 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,377,725.75. The trade was a 7.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.51% of the company's stock.

Assurant Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AIZ traded up $2.54 on Tuesday, hitting $199.06. 57,653 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 465,114. The company's 50 day moving average price is $196.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $207.03. Assurant, Inc. has a one year low of $160.12 and a one year high of $230.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a current ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.76 and a beta of 0.59.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $3.39 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.61. Assurant had a net margin of 6.40% and a return on equity of 17.25%. The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.06 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.78 EPS. The business's revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 9th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. Assurant's payout ratio is 24.94%.

Assurant Profile

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.