Guggenheim Capital LLC Buys 9,724 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Guggenheim Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ - Free Report) by 14.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 77,684 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 9,724 shares during the quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC owned about 0.15% of Assurant worth $16,564,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan bought a new stake in Assurant in the 4th quarter valued at about $110,000. Mariner LLC grew its position in Assurant by 35.6% in the 4th quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 6,989 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,490,000 after purchasing an additional 1,836 shares during the period. Optimize Financial Inc purchased a new position in shares of Assurant during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $370,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Assurant by 55.4% during the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 3,082 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 22,866 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $4,875,000 after acquiring an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. 92.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AIZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Assurant from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Assurant from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $223.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Assurant from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Assurant from $230.00 to $224.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Assurant currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $234.17.

Insider Transactions at Assurant

In other news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $201.50, for a total transaction of $604,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,708 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,568,162. This represents a 14.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.53% of the company's stock.

Assurant Trading Down 1.7 %

Assurant stock traded down $3.26 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $185.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 37,269 shares, compared to its average volume of 382,115. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $202.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $206.93. Assurant, Inc. has a 12 month low of $160.12 and a 12 month high of $230.55. The stock has a market cap of $9.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.43 and a quick ratio of 0.43.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $4.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 EPS for the current year.

About Assurant

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.