Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Receives a ‘Moderate Buy’ Consensus Recommendation from Analysts

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT – Get your free report ) 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 price target 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 price target 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. boosted 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 raised 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 target price 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 raised their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $70. $00 in a research report on Monday, August 5th.

See our latest report on ESNT

Insiders place their bets

In other news, SVP Vijay Bhasin sold 11,188 shares of the company’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’s 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 via this link. Also, Director Roy James Kasmar sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were 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 shares.

Institutional inputs and outputs

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 about $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in shares of Essent Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Quarry LP boosted 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 during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the second quarter valued at about $47,000. Finally, Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Essent Group during the second quarter valued at $176,000. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s shares.

Essent Group stocks rose 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 company 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 – Get Your Free Report ) 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 EPS of $1.61. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Essent Group will post 6.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

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

About Essent Group

(Get a free report

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgage loans secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, joint and primary policies. The company also provides IT maintenance and development services; customer support services; underwriting consultancy; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and securities insurance and settlement services.

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