Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Lowers Position in Assurant, Inc. $AIZ

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lessened its position in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 69,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 14,350 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Assurant were worth $16,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AIZ. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 606.7% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,060 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 19.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 290,759 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $60,987,000 after purchasing an additional 47,548 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new position in shares of Assurant in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $203,000. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 66.6% in the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 2,648 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,059 shares during the period. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in Assurant by 57.8% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 183 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AIZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Assurant from $258.00 to $270.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Assurant from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $240.00 to $285.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Wall Street Zen cut Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Assurant from $268.00 to $290.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Assurant from $280.00 to $290.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assurant news, EVP Jay Rosenblum sold 2,000 shares of Assurant stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.77, for a total value of $503,540.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 12,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,213,592.28. This trade represents a 13.55% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Subhashish Sengupta sold 1,880 shares of Assurant stock in a transaction on Friday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.53, for a total value of $395,796.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 2,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $609,484.35. The trade was a 39.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 31,650 shares of company stock worth $7,930,981 in the last 90 days. 0.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assurant Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:AIZ opened at $257.47 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $236.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $231.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.17 and a beta of 0.56. Assurant, Inc. has a 12-month low of $183.39 and a 12-month high of $260.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The financial services provider reported $5.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.29 by $0.66. The business had revenue of $3.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.29 billion. Assurant had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 7.60%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $5.79 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 21.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th will be issued a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 8th. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.01%.

Assurant Company Profile

Assurant, Inc is a global provider of risk management products and services, specializing in the housing and lifestyle markets. The company offers insurance and related products designed to help consumers protect their homes, personal belongings, and electronic devices. Its core offerings include renters insurance, manufactured housing finance, flood insurance, mobile device protection plans, and extended service contracts for appliances and electronics.

Within its Global Housing segment, Assurant partners with mortgage lenders, financial institutions and government agencies to deliver specialty insurance and risk mitigation services.