Insider Selling: Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) CEO Sells $244,632.63 in Stock

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) CEO Mark Casale sold 3,763 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total transaction of $244,632.63. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,214,717 shares in the company, valued at $143,978,752.17. This trade represents a 0.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Mark Casale also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, April 28th, Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of Essent Group stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20.

Essent Group Stock Up 0.4%

NYSE:ESNT traded up $0.28 on Thursday, reaching $64.80. The stock had a trading volume of 600,140 shares, compared to its average volume of 784,238. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.56 and a 200 day moving average of $61.31. 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 cap of $5.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.76. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12-month low of $55.22 and a 12-month high of $67.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.The business had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.69 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essent Group

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Essent Group by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,987,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $779,336,000 after purchasing an additional 85,295 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 4.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 129,672 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Essent Group in the 4th quarter worth about $155,516,000. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,952,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,900,000 after buying an additional 13,318 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,864,067 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $121,183,000 after buying an additional 567,103 shares during the period. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESNT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on Essent Group in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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 note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essent Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.57.

About Essent Group

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.