Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases New Stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 11,771 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $621,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Essent Group by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,995,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $617,982,000 after buying an additional 71,629 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Essent Group by 2.4% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,160,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $389,177,000 after buying an additional 261,537 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Essent Group by 10.2% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,781,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $361,875,000 after buying an additional 815,259 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Essent Group by 7.0% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,375,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $180,327,000 after buying an additional 286,764 shares during the period. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Essent Group by 1.1% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 3,932,841 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $157,510,000 after buying an additional 43,379 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essent Group

In other Essent Group news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.00, for a total value of $275,000.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 247,969 shares in the company, valued at $13,638,295. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Essent Group Trading Down 1.1 %

ESNT stock opened at $52.67 on Wednesday. Essent Group Ltd. has a twelve month low of $40.33 and a twelve month high of $59.90. The company has a market capitalization of $5.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.10, a PEG ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.99.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.05. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 62.75%. The firm had revenue of $297.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $286.18 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. This is a boost from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.23%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESNT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $58.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Essent Group currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $58.38.

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.