Capital World Investors Trims Stock Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT

Capital World Investors reduced its stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,762,129 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 246,219 shares during the period. Capital World Investors’ holdings in Essent Group were worth $309,586,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Vestcor Inc raised its holdings in Essent Group by 671.0% in the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 8,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $545,000 after buying an additional 7,300 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,668,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Essent Group by 45.0% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $174,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the period. Finally, Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $463,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Essent Group

In other news, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total transaction of $480,640.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 237,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,970,293.86. The trade was a 3.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total value of $849,813.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,218,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $144,312,124. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 25,814 shares of company stock valued at $1,661,682. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ESNT. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Essent Group in a report on Friday, May 22nd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Essent Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Essent Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $66.43.

Essent Group Stock Performance

NYSE ESNT opened at $56.91 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $5.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $60.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.55. Essent Group Ltd. has a 1-year low of $55.22 and a 1-year high of $67.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $336.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.Essent Group’s revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.69 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.25 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is currently 19.94%.

Essent Group Company Profile

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a publicly traded insurance holding company specializing in private mortgage insurance and mortgage reinsurance solutions. Through its primary subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, the company provides credit protection to mortgage lenders, helping mitigate the risk of borrower default on residential mortgage loans. Essent’s insurance policies enable lenders to offer low-down-payment programs, supporting homebuyers in achieving homeownership with reduced upfront equity requirements.

Beyond traditional mortgage insurance, Essent offers a suite of risk management and analytics services designed to help financial institutions monitor and manage mortgage portfolios.