Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT - Free Report) by 40.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,600 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 17,500 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Essent Group worth $3,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Essent Group in the 4th quarter worth $69,364,000. Cooke & Bieler LP increased its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 45.9% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,228,925 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $121,343,000 after acquiring an additional 700,730 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,367,101 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $673,265,000 after buying an additional 432,034 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 884.8% in the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 266,537 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $14,510,000 after purchasing an additional 239,473 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Essent Group by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 984,414 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $53,591,000 after acquiring an additional 233,636 shares during the period. 93.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages have recently commented on ESNT. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $67.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Essent Group from $71.00 to $65.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Essent Group from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays downgraded shares of Essent Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.71.
Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on Essent Group
Essent Group Price Performance
NYSE ESNT traded down $0.58 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $55.55. The stock had a trading volume of 445,562 shares, compared to its average volume of 639,398. Essent Group Ltd. has a twelve month low of $51.61 and a twelve month high of $65.34. The firm's 50 day moving average is $55.79 and its 200 day moving average is $56.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.12, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.80.
Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.09). Essent Group had a return on equity of 13.35% and a net margin of 58.69%. The business had revenue of $315.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $313.88 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.64 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current year.
Essent Group Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Essent Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. Essent Group's payout ratio is 18.13%.
About Essent Group
(
Free Report)
Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the United States. Its mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. The company also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting; and contract underwriting services, as well as risk management products and title insurance and settlement services.
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