UBS Group AG Decreases Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT

UBS Group AG reduced its stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 43.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 303,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 234,018 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $19,729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 78.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,517,859 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,180,000 after purchasing an additional 669,577 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 45.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,198,447 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,173,000 after buying an additional 372,881 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 19.6% in the third quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 1,938,688 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $123,223,000 after buying an additional 318,318 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 152.3% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 455,819 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,682,000 after buying an additional 275,149 shares during the period. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 1,616.6% during the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 257,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,356,000 after buying an additional 242,335 shares during the period. 93.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group decreased their price target on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Essent Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.00.

Essent Group Stock Down 2.7%

Shares of NYSE ESNT opened at $61.42 on Tuesday. Essent Group Ltd. has a 1 year low of $55.22 and a 1 year high of $67.09. The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.75, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a current ratio of 1.02. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $61.78.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.The firm had revenue of $336.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $297.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.69 earnings per share. Essent Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.94%.

Insider Activity at Essent Group

In other news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total transaction of $480,640.28. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 237,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,970,293.86. This trade represents a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,218,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $144,312,124. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 25,814 shares of company stock valued at $1,661,682. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Company Profile

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a publicly traded insurance holding company specializing in private mortgage insurance and mortgage reinsurance solutions. Through its primary subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, the company provides credit protection to mortgage lenders, helping mitigate the risk of borrower default on residential mortgage loans. Essent’s insurance policies enable lenders to offer low-down-payment programs, supporting homebuyers in achieving homeownership with reduced upfront equity requirements.

Beyond traditional mortgage insurance, Essent offers a suite of risk management and analytics services designed to help financial institutions monitor and manage mortgage portfolios.