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Essent Group (ESNT) Competitors

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$65.24 -0.24 (-0.37%)
Closing price 09/19/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$65.26 +0.03 (+0.04%)
As of 09/19/2025 04:51 PM Eastern
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ESNT vs. EWBC, FITB, NMIH, WTFC, EQH, FNB, FNF, MTG, PRU, and RDN

Should you be buying Essent Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Essent Group include East West Bancorp (EWBC), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), NMI (NMIH), Wintrust Financial (WTFC), Equitable (EQH), F.N.B. (FNB), Fidelity National Financial (FNF), MGIC Investment (MTG), Prudential Financial (PRU), and Radian Group (RDN). These companies are all part of the "finance" sector.

Essent Group vs. Its Competitors

East West Bancorp (NASDAQ:EWBC) and Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and media sentiment.

Essent Group has a net margin of 56.36% compared to East West Bancorp's net margin of 26.06%. East West Bancorp's return on equity of 15.09% beat Essent Group's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
East West Bancorp26.06% 15.09% 1.56%
Essent Group 56.36%12.66%9.98%

In the previous week, Essent Group had 2 more articles in the media than East West Bancorp. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Essent Group and 9 mentions for East West Bancorp. East West Bancorp's average media sentiment score of 1.47 beat Essent Group's score of 1.28 indicating that East West Bancorp is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
East West Bancorp
8 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Essent Group
8 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

East West Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Essent Group. Essent Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than East West Bancorp, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
East West Bancorp$4.53B3.32$1.17B$8.5612.73
Essent Group$1.24B5.17$729.40M$6.859.52

89.5% of East West Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.0% of Essent Group shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of East West Bancorp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Essent Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

East West Bancorp presently has a consensus target price of $116.64, indicating a potential upside of 7.06%. Essent Group has a consensus target price of $63.67, indicating a potential downside of 2.41%. Given East West Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe East West Bancorp is more favorable than Essent Group.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
East West Bancorp
0 Sell rating(s)
5 Hold rating(s)
9 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.64
Essent Group
0 Sell rating(s)
4 Hold rating(s)
4 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.50

East West Bancorp has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Essent Group has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

East West Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Essent Group pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. East West Bancorp pays out 28.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Essent Group pays out 18.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. East West Bancorp has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Essent Group has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years. East West Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

East West Bancorp beats Essent Group on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding ESNT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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ESNT vs. The Competition

MetricEssent GroupINS IndustryFinance SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$6.43B$59.23B$12.69B$21.65B
Dividend Yield1.90%1.86%5.41%3.51%
P/E Ratio9.5216.86243.7329.94
Price / Sales5.172.7730.9760.18
Price / Cash9.1829.1722.3124.98
Price / Book1.243.062.334.59
Net Income$729.40M$4.66B$1.01B$1.00B
7 Day Performance2.35%0.61%0.39%0.81%
1 Month Performance5.27%3.88%3.94%5.30%
1 Year Performance2.71%20.48%541.50%14.58%

Essent Group Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
ESNT
Essent Group
4.1627 of 5 stars
$65.24
-0.4%
$63.67
-2.4%
+2.7%$6.43B$1.24B9.52350News Coverage
Positive News
Insider Trade
Short Interest ↑
High Trading Volume
EWBC
East West Bancorp
3.7179 of 5 stars
$109.61
+1.9%
$116.08
+5.9%
+31.9%$14.83B$4.53B12.803,100Positive News
High Trading Volume
FITB
Fifth Third Bancorp
4.586 of 5 stars
$45.49
-0.3%
$47.80
+5.1%
+6.6%$30.20B$13.28B14.1318,616News Coverage
Positive News
Dividend Increase
NMIH
NMI
3.458 of 5 stars
$39.89
-0.2%
$42.33
+6.1%
-3.4%$3.10B$650.97M8.47234News Coverage
Positive News
Insider Trade
WTFC
Wintrust Financial
4.8356 of 5 stars
$138.73
-0.6%
$147.31
+6.2%
+24.8%$9.34B$3.97B13.125,903Positive News
Short Interest ↑
EQH
Equitable
4.3359 of 5 stars
$53.16
-0.4%
$64.90
+22.1%
+28.8%$15.99B$12.44B42.878,000Positive News
Analyst Upgrade
Insider Trade
FNB
F.N.B.
4.6929 of 5 stars
$16.49
+0.0%
$18.64
+13.1%
+13.9%$5.92B$2.57B12.884,280
FNF
Fidelity National Financial
4.7481 of 5 stars
$60.55
0.0%
$71.20
+17.6%
-3.8%$16.46B$13.68B15.3723,533Positive News
Ex-Dividend
MTG
MGIC Investment
3.8479 of 5 stars
$28.39
-0.1%
$26.67
-6.1%
+11.6%$6.55B$1.22B9.31680News Coverage
Positive News
PRU
Prudential Financial
4.8274 of 5 stars
$105.88
+0.2%
$122.08
+15.3%
-14.7%$37.21B$68.05B23.4838,196Positive News
Analyst Forecast
RDN
Radian Group
2.8325 of 5 stars
$35.13
-0.7%
$37.00
+5.3%
+5.9%$4.79B$1.29B8.851,400Trending News
Insider Trade
Analyst Revision

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This page (NYSE:ESNT) was last updated on 9/21/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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