Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Decreases Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky decreased its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 4.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,998 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,700 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $1,846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Essent Group by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,025,836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $212,326,000 after purchasing an additional 258,246 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,496,741 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,938,000 after buying an additional 25,483 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 1.0% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,453,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $68,720,000 after buying an additional 14,145 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Essent Group in the fourth quarter worth about $60,678,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,126,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $59,401,000 after buying an additional 7,604 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $56.62 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $55.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $54.47. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $44.21 and a fifty-two week high of $59.90.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The financial services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.56 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $298.69 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 61.40% and a return on equity of 14.24%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Investors of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.94%.

Insider Activity at Essent Group

In other Essent Group news, Director Douglas J. Pauls sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $140,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 27,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,521,525.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Essent Group from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $58.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.25.

Essent Group Profile

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. The company also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and title insurance and settlement services.