Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Receives $68.00 Average Target Price from Analysts

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $68.00.

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT opened at $61.86 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.81. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.81. Essent Group has a 12 month low of $55.22 and a 12 month high of $67.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 53.64% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Essent Group will post 7.32 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 19.94%.

Insider Transactions at Essent Group

In related news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total value of $480,640.28. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 237,586 shares in the company, valued at $14,970,293.86. This represents a 3.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,218,480 shares in the company, valued at $144,312,124. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 25,814 shares of company stock worth $1,661,682 in the last three months. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essent Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its stake in Essent Group by 45.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after buying an additional 195 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc increased its stake in Essent Group by 97.1% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.