Nair Biju Sells 3,931 Shares of Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) Stock

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) EVP Nair Biju sold 3,931 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $302.46, for a total transaction of $1,188,970.26. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,247 shares in the company, valued at $7,333,747.62. This represents a 13.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Assurant Stock Performance

Shares of AIZ stock opened at $289.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 0.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.82 and a beta of 0.55. Assurant, Inc. has a one year low of $201.96 and a one year high of $303.94. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $270.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.51.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The financial services provider reported $6.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.17 by $1.24. Assurant had a net margin of 7.90% and a return on equity of 20.40%. The company had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.43 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $5.56 EPS. Assurant’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 21.61 EPS for the current year.

Assurant Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 29th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 8th were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 8th. Assurant’s payout ratio is 16.81%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assurant

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Assurant during the second quarter valued at about $1,345,211,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Assurant in the second quarter valued at about $1,269,591,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Assurant in the fourth quarter valued at about $161,574,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Assurant during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $76,718,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its stake in Assurant by 676.5% during the 4th quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 240,240 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $57,862,000 after purchasing an additional 209,300 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on Assurant from $270.00 to $274.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $310.00 target price on Assurant in a report on Wednesday, June 17th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Assurant from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Assurant from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Assurant from $285.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Assurant has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $305.57.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc is a global provider of risk management products and services, specializing in the housing and lifestyle markets. The company offers insurance and related products designed to help consumers protect their homes, personal belongings, and electronic devices. Its core offerings include renters insurance, manufactured housing finance, flood insurance, mobile device protection plans, and extended service contracts for appliances and electronics.

Within its Global Housing segment, Assurant partners with mortgage lenders, financial institutions and government agencies to deliver specialty insurance and risk mitigation services.