Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,329 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $710,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AIZ. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Assurant by 133.2% in the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 765 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $163,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Assurant by 219.1% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 150 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Assurant by 127.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 134 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,119 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $239,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the period. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in Assurant in the fourth quarter valued at about $371,000. 92.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AIZ has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Assurant in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $251.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of Assurant from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assurant from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $212.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price objective on Assurant from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $234.17.

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Assurant Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of AIZ stock traded up $3.67 on Friday, hitting $204.94. The stock had a trading volume of 489,429 shares, compared to its average volume of 345,040. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. Assurant, Inc. has a twelve month low of $160.12 and a twelve month high of $230.55. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $208.63 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $205.62. The firm has a market cap of $10.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.16 and a beta of 0.61.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $4.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.83. Assurant had a return on equity of 17.25% and a net margin of 6.40%. As a group, analysts forecast that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Assurant's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.11%.

Insider Transactions at Assurant

In other news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.50, for a total transaction of $604,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,708 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,568,162. This represents a 14.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.53% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assurant Company Profile

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.