Brokerages Set Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Price Target at $68.43

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $68.4286.

Several research firms have weighed in on ESNT. UBS Group lowered their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $71.00 to $73.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Roth Mkm lifted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $70.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 2nd.

Essent Group Stock Performance

ESNT opened at $58.21 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $5.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.20. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $60.70 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.88. Essent Group has a 1-year low of $51.61 and a 1-year high of $67.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.14). The firm had revenue of $312.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $312.62 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 54.72%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Essent Group will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 20.32%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essent Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Essent Group by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,987,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $779,336,000 after buying an additional 85,295 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,076,950 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $206,628,000 after acquiring an additional 129,672 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Essent Group in the fourth quarter worth $155,516,000. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,952,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $126,900,000 after acquiring an additional 13,318 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Essent Group by 43.7% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,864,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $121,183,000 after acquiring an additional 567,103 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

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.