Quantbot Technologies LP Buys New Stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 14,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $781,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,206,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $270,425,000 after buying an additional 59,750 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its position in Essent Group by 45.9% during the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,228,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,343,000 after acquiring an additional 700,730 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Essent Group by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,570,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $85,500,000 after acquiring an additional 19,387 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,021,343 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $65,662,000 after acquiring an additional 99,604 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Essent Group by 31.1% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 984,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,591,000 after acquiring an additional 233,636 shares in the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Essent Group Trading Up 1.3 %

ESNT opened at $58.03 on Thursday. Essent Group Ltd. has a twelve month low of $52.22 and a twelve month high of $65.34. The stock has a market cap of $6.03 billion, a PE ratio of 8.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.09. The business’s 50 day moving average is $56.92 and its 200-day moving average is $58.00.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.09). Essent Group had a net margin of 58.69% and a return on equity of 13.35%. The firm had revenue of $315.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $313.88 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.14%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESNT has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays cut shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on Essent Group from $72.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $67.00 price target on shares of Essent Group in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.57.

Essent Group Profile

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.