Vanguard Group Inc. Buys 432,034 Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT - Free Report) by 3.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,367,101 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 432,034 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.64% of Essent Group worth $673,265,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Essent Group by 154.7% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 208,927 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $13,431,000 after buying an additional 126,899 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,570,532 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $85,500,000 after purchasing an additional 19,387 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Essent Group by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,021,343 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $65,662,000 after acquiring an additional 99,604 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Essent Group by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,206,325 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $270,425,000 after purchasing an additional 59,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Essent Group by 81.9% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 100,253 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,445,000 after buying an additional 45,126 shares in the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESNT has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $67.00 price target on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Barclays lowered shares of Essent Group from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on shares of Essent Group from $72.00 to $71.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Essent Group has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $62.57.

Essent Group Price Performance

ESNT stock traded down $2.25 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $54.49. The stock had a trading volume of 976,979 shares, compared to its average volume of 618,249. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $57.77. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $52.22 and a fifty-two week high of $65.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a PE ratio of 7.97, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $315.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $313.88 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 13.35% and a net margin of 58.69%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.64 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Essent Group's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Essent Group's dividend payout ratio is 18.13%.

Essent Group Profile

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.