Brokerages Set Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Target Price at $59.38

Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $59.88.

Several brokerages have recently commented on ESNT. Barclays boosted their price target on Essent Group from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Essent Group from $64.00 to $61.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday.

Insider Activity at Essent Group

In other news, Director Douglas J. Pauls sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.12, for a total transaction of $140,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 27,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,521,525.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 18.5% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in Essent Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $126,000. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ESNT opened at $57.57 on Tuesday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $56.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.98. The company has a market capitalization of $6.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.11. Essent Group has a 1 year low of $45.63 and a 1 year high of $59.90.

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

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 31st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 16.94%.

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.