Short Interest in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) Rises By 10.1%

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) saw a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 744,900 shares, a growth of 10.1% from the March 15th total of 676,600 shares. Currently, 1.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 369,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AIZ shares. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Assurant from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut shares of Assurant from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $170.00 to $182.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Assurant from $191.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $192.20.

Institutional Trading of Assurant

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 11.5% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 6,180 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,124,000 after buying an additional 639 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assurant during the 1st quarter worth about $211,000. MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 23.1% during the 1st quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 15,499 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,818,000 after buying an additional 2,912 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 17.5% during the 1st quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 6,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,092,000 after buying an additional 896 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 7,624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,386,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Assurant Stock Performance

Shares of AIZ stock opened at $171.06 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $178.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $167.69. Assurant has a one year low of $115.41 and a one year high of $189.48.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $4.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.88. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.78 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 18.36%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Assurant will post 15.67 EPS for the current year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.04%.

About Assurant

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.