Insider Selling: Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) Director Sells $174,250.00 in Stock

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Director Douglas Pauls sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.70, for a total value of $174,250.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 30,154 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,101,733.80. This represents a 7.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Essent Group Trading Up 0.9%

ESNT traded up $0.62 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $69.09. The company had a trading volume of 417,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 728,460. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.06. The company has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.64, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.76. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12-month low of $55.34 and a 12-month high of $70.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $2.08 EPS for the quarter. Essent Group had a net margin of 51.45% and a return on equity of 11.91%. The company had revenue of $362.69 million during the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 31st. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is currently 19.53%.

Institutional Trading of Essent Group

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $346,000. M&T Bank Corp purchased a new position in shares of Essent Group during the 2nd quarter valued at $239,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Essent Group by 160.0% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,280 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Essent Group in the second quarter worth $211,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the second quarter worth $224,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ESNT shares. Roth Capital raised their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised Essent Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Barclays raised their target price on Essent Group from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Essent Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essent Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $71.86.

About Essent Group

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.