Essent Group (ESNT) Stock Price, News & Analysis

Company Overview

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. These services include automated underwriting integrations, predictive analytics, portfolio surveillance, and capital markets execution. In addition, Essent Reinsurance provides customized reinsurance solutions that allow insurers to optimize capital usage, tailor risk exposure and enhance overall balance-sheet flexibility.

Founded in 2008 and commencing operations in 2010, Essent completed its initial public offering in December 2013. The company is incorporated in Bermuda with its executive headquarters in Jersey City, New Jersey. Essent’s operations span all 50 states, where it has established relationships with a broad range of mortgage lenders, including banks, credit unions and independent mortgage bankers.

Essent’s management team comprises experienced professionals in insurance underwriting, risk management and capital markets. The company maintains robust financial strength and governance standards, underpinned by ratings from major rating agencies. Essent continues to focus on innovation in mortgage insurance technology, client service excellence and disciplined risk selection to support sustainable growth in the U.S. housing finance market.

Key Stats

• Today's Range: $60.67 to $62.00
• 50-Day Range: $57.12 to $64.59
• 52-Week Range: $55.22 to $67.09
• Volume: 465,808 shs
• Average Volume: 729,371 shs
• Market Capitalization: $5.61 billion
• P/E Ratio: 8.67
• Dividend Yield: 2.30%
• Price Target: $67.86
• Consensus Rating: Hold

Essent Group Stock Analysis - MarketRank™

Essent Group scored higher than 93% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat, and ranked 155th out of 880 stocks in the finance sector. Scores are calculated by averaging available category scores, with extra weight given to analysis and valuation.

Analyst's Opinion

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Analyst Rating: Hold

Consensus Rating

Essent Group has received a consensus rating of Hold. The company's average rating score is 2.30, and is based on no strong buy ratings, 3 buy ratings, 7 hold ratings, and no sell ratings.

Upside Potential

Essent Group has a consensus price target of $67.86, representing about 11.4% upside from its current price of $60.90.

Amount of Analyst Coverage

Essent Group has been the subject of 5 research reports in the past 90 days, demonstrating strong analyst interest in this stock.

Earnings and Valuation

• Score: 3.1 / 5
• Proj. Earnings Growth: 7.24%

Earnings Growth

Earnings for Essent Group are expected to grow by 7.24% in the coming year, from $7.32 to $7.85 per share.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. the Market

The P/E ratio of Essent Group is 8.67, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the market average P/E ratio of about 44.78.

Price to Earnings Ratio vs. Sector

The P/E ratio of Essent Group is 8.67, which means that it is trading at a less expensive P/E ratio than the Finance sector average P/E ratio of about 23.96.

Price to Earnings Growth Ratio

Essent Group has a PEG Ratio of 1.67. PEG Ratios above 1 indicate that a company could be overvalued.

Price to Book Value per Share Ratio

Essent Group has a P/B Ratio of 0.99. P/B Ratios below 1 indicate that a company could be undervalued with respect to its assets and liabilities.

Short Interest

• Score: 3.0 / 5
• Short Interest Level: Healthy

Percentage of Shares Shorted

2.19% of the float of Essent Group has been sold short.

Short Interest Ratio / Days to Cover

Essent Group has a short interest ratio ("days to cover") of 3.09, which is generally considered an acceptable ratio of short interest to trading volume.

Change versus previous month

Short interest in Essent Group has recently increased by 5.80%, indicating that investor sentiment is decreasing significantly.

Dividend

• Score: 3.3 / 5
• Dividend Strength: Strong

Dividend Yield

Essent Group pays a meaningful dividend of 2.30%, higher than the bottom 25% of all stocks that pay dividends.

Dividend Growth

Essent Group has been increasing its dividend for 6 years.

Dividend Coverage

The dividend payout ratio of Essent Group is 19.94%. This payout ratio is at a healthy, sustainable level, below 75%.

Dividend Sustainability

Based on earnings estimates, Essent Group will have a dividend payout ratio of 17.83% next year. This indicates that Essent Group will be able to sustain or increase its dividend.

News and Social Media

• Score: 3.2 / 5
• News Sentiment: 1.17

News Sentiment

Essent Group has a news sentiment score of 1.17. This score is calculated as an average of sentiment of articles about the company over the last seven days and ranges from 2 (good news) to -2 (bad news). This is a higher news sentiment than the 0.65 average news sentiment score of Finance companies.

News Coverage This Week

MarketBeat has tracked 6 news articles for Essent Group this week, compared to 3 articles on an average week.

Company Ownership

• Score: 1.6 / 5
• Insider Trading: Selling Shares

Insider Buying vs. Insider Selling

In the past three months, Essent Group insiders have sold more of their company's stock than they have bought. Specifically, they have bought $0.00 in company stock and sold $1,661,682.00 in company stock.

Percentage Held by Insiders

3.60% of the stock of Essent Group is held by insiders.

Percentage Held by Institutions

93.00% of the stock of Essent Group is held by institutions. High institutional ownership can be a signal of strong market trust in this company.

Company Calendar

• Record date for 3/23 Dividend: 3/13/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 3/23 Dividend: 3/13/2026
• Dividend Payable: 3/23/2026
• Last Earnings: 5/08/2026
• Today: 5/25/2026
• Record date for 6/10 Dividend: 6/01/2026
• Ex-Dividend for 6/10 Dividend: 6/01/2026
• Dividend Payable: 6/10/2026
• Fiscal Year End: 12/31/2026

Industry, Sector and Symbol

• Stock Exchange: NYSE
• Sector: Finance
• Industry: INS - PROP&CASLTY
• Sub-Industry: Insurance
• Current Symbol: NYSE:ESNT
• CIK: 1448893
• Web: www.essentgroup.com
• Phone: (441) 297-9901
• Fax: N/A
• Employees: 350
• Year Founded: 2008

Price Target and Rating

• Average Price Target for Essent Group: $67.86
• High Price Target: $75.00
• Low Price Target: $62.00
• Potential Upside/Downside: +11.4%
• Consensus Rating: Hold
• Rating Score (0-4): 2.30
• Research Coverage: 10 Analysts

Profitability

• EPS (Trailing Twelve Months): $7.02
• Trailing P/E Ratio: 8.67
• Forward P/E Ratio: 8.32
• P/E Growth: 1.67
• Net Income: $689.97 million
• Net Margins: 53.64%
• Pretax Margin: 64.21%
• Return on Equity: 12.01%
• Return on Assets: 9.28%

Debt

• Debt-to-Equity Ratio: 0.09
• Current Ratio: 1.32
• Quick Ratio: 1.32

Sales & Book Value

• Annual Sales: $1.26 billion
• Price / Sales: 4.45
• Cash Flow: $7.35 per share
• Price / Cash Flow: 8.28
• Book Value: $61.82 per share
• Price / Book: 0.99

Miscellaneous

• Outstanding Shares: 92,150,000
• Free Float: 88,835,000
• Market Cap: $5.61 billion
• Optionable: Optionable
• Beta: 0.81