Clearbridge Investments LLC Lowers Stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Clearbridge Investments LLC reduced its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 247,294 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 10,065 shares during the quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.23% of Essent Group worth $13,042,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 18.5% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 241 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Essent Group by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 48,198 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,542,000 after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the last quarter. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Essent Group during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Pearl River Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Pearl River Capital LLC now owns 8,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 19,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $58.00 to $61.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on shares of Essent Group from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.25.

Essent Group Trading Up 0.9 %

Essent Group stock traded up $0.49 during trading on Friday, hitting $56.19. The company had a trading volume of 367,950 shares, compared to its average volume of 521,521. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.38. Essent Group Ltd. has a 1-year low of $43.27 and a 1-year high of $59.90. The stock has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.05.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The financial services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $298.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $298.69 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 61.40%. Essent Group’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.59 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essent Group

In other Essent Group news, Director Douglas J. Pauls sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total value of $140,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,521,525.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Essent Group

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.