Nordea Investment Management AB Trims Stock Holdings in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Nordea Investment Management AB lessened its stake in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 662,672 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 135,271 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB owned approximately 1.29% of Assurant worth $141,527,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pathstone Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 0.5% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 10,087 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,006,000 after buying an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in Assurant by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 829 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $165,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the period. Richardson Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in Assurant by 62.1% in the 2nd quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. now owns 201 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 6,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,376,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assurant by 1.0% during the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,514,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on AIZ. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Assurant in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $229.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of Assurant stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20,658 shares in the company, valued at $4,321,240.44. This trade represents a 12.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Assurant Price Performance

AIZ opened at $207.38 on Tuesday. Assurant, Inc. has a 52-week low of $160.12 and a 52-week high of $230.55. The company has a 50 day moving average of $214.05 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.28. The company has a market cap of $10.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.79 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.48. Assurant had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 17.42%. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Investors of record on Monday, December 9th were issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. This is an increase from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.82%.

Assurant Company Profile

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.