Short Interest in Radian Group Inc. (NYSE:RDN) Drops By 13.3%

Radian Group Inc. (NYSE:RDN) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,080,000 shares, a drop of 13.3% from the June 15th total of 7,010,000 shares. Currently, 4.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 798,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Radian Group news, EVP Eric Ray sold 65,305 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.05, for a total value of $2,027,720.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 53,791 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,670,210.55. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Chairman Howard Bernard Culang sold 10,804 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.45, for a total value of $339,785.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman now owns 8,050 shares in the company, valued at approximately $253,172.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Eric Ray sold 65,305 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $31.05, for a total value of $2,027,720.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 53,791 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,670,210.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 117,004 shares of company stock worth $3,651,517. 2.16% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Radian Group

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Radian Group by 0.3% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,439,073 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $684,096,000 after purchasing an additional 69,383 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Radian Group by 0.8% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,863,814 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $229,732,000 after purchasing an additional 52,397 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. lifted its position in Radian Group by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 4,012,334 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $114,552,000 after purchasing an additional 594,752 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Radian Group during the fourth quarter valued at $53,792,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Radian Group by 12.4% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,855,310 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $46,587,000 after purchasing an additional 204,459 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.33% of the company’s stock.

Radian Group Stock Performance

Shares of RDN opened at $33.01 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.80 and a quick ratio of 1.80. Radian Group has a one year low of $24.56 and a one year high of $33.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.73, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day moving average of $31.15 and a 200 day moving average of $30.25.

Radian Group (NYSE:RDN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The insurance provider reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.20. Radian Group had a return on equity of 14.52% and a net margin of 47.74%. The company had revenue of $319.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $314.76 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.98 earnings per share. Radian Group’s revenue was up 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Radian Group will post 3.52 EPS for the current year.

Radian Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 4th were issued a $0.245 dividend. This represents a $0.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 4th. Radian Group’s payout ratio is currently 25.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on RDN shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Radian Group from $30.00 to $31.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Radian Group from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $35.00 to $36.00 in a report on Monday, June 3rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Radian Group has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $31.13.

Radian Group Company Profile

Radian Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mortgage and real estate services business in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Homegenius segments. The Mortgage Insurance segment aggregates, manages, and distributes U.S. mortgage credit risk for mortgage lending institutions and mortgage credit investors, through private mortgage insurance on residential first-lien mortgage loans; and other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting.