Mary Lourdes Gibbons Sells 4,352 Shares of Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) Stock

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 4,352 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $291,584.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 237,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,939,032. The trade was a 1.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Essent Group Trading Down 0.7%

ESNT stock traded down $0.45 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $65.81. The stock had a trading volume of 566,650 shares, compared to its average volume of 714,204. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12-month low of $51.61 and a 12-month high of $67.09. The firm has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $61.98 and its 200 day moving average price is $61.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.75 by ($0.08). Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.40% and a net margin of 55.63%.The company had revenue of $311.83 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $316.84 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.65 earnings per share. Essent Group’s revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 1st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is 18.05%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essent Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESNT. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL boosted its stake in Essent Group by 21.3% during the 3rd quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 437,890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,832,000 after purchasing an additional 76,855 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $305,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 14,037.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 1,123 shares during the period. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in Essent Group during the third quarter worth about $661,000. Finally, Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the third quarter worth $57,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “cautious” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Essent Group from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $66.00 to $65.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Essent Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.67.

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.