Essent Group (ESNT) Competitors

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) and Prudential (NYSE:PUK) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, community ranking, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, media sentiment and analyst recommendations.

Is ESNT or PUK more profitable?

Essent Group has a net margin of 60.15% compared to Prudential's net margin of 0.00%. Essent Group's return on equity of 13.81% beat Prudential's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essent Group	60.15%	13.81%	10.99%
Prudential	N/A	N/A	N/A

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in ESNT or PUK?

93.0% of Essent Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.9% of Prudential shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Essent Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Prudential shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer ESNT or PUK?

In the previous week, Prudential had 1 more articles in the media than Essent Group. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Prudential and 1 mentions for Essent Group. Prudential's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat Essent Group's score of 1.29 indicating that Prudential is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Essent Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Prudential	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is ESNT or PUK a better dividend stock?

Essent Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Prudential pays an annual dividend of $0.27 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Essent Group pays out 16.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in ESNT or PUK?

Prudential received 13 more outperform votes than Essent Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 65.52% of users gave Essent Group an outperform vote while only 61.83% of users gave Prudential an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Essent Group	Outperform Votes 439 65.52%	Underperform Votes 231 34.48%
Prudential	Outperform Votes 452 61.83%	Underperform Votes 279 38.17%

Do analysts recommend ESNT or PUK?

Essent Group currently has a consensus target price of $65.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.65%. Given Essent Group's higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Essent Group is more favorable than Prudential.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essent Group	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.57
Prudential	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has higher valuation & earnings, ESNT or PUK?

Prudential has higher revenue and earnings than Essent Group.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Essent Group	$1.11B	5.33	$696.39M	$6.90	8.08
Prudential	$19.50B	1.10	$1.70B	N/A	N/A

Which has more volatility & risk, ESNT or PUK?

Essent Group has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prudential has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Essent Group beats Prudential on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.