Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $64.33.

Several equities analysts have weighed in on ESNT shares. BTIG Research lifted their target price on Essent Group from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 5th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Essent Group from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Essent Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $70.00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Vijay Bhasin sold 11,188 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.14, for a total transaction of $672,846.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 199,359 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,989,450.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Vijay Bhasin sold 11,188 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.14, for a total value of $672,846.32. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,359 shares in the company, valued at $11,989,450.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Roy James Kasmar sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.81, for a total transaction of $294,050.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,596,103.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ESNT. Advisors Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Essent Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Essent Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Quarry LP increased its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 167.1% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 836 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 523 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the second quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Essent Group during the 2nd quarter worth $176,000. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Stock Up 0.3 %

ESNT opened at $63.10 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.64. Essent Group has a fifty-two week low of $45.63 and a fifty-two week high of $64.05.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 2nd. The financial services provider reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $272.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $308.33 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 61.40%. The company’s revenue was up 9.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.61 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Essent Group will post 6.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.77%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is currently 16.94%.

About Essent Group

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.