State of Tennessee Department of Treasury Sells 3,513 Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

State of Tennessee Department of Treasury trimmed its stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 6.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 51,887 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,513 shares during the quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $2,825,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barclays PLC grew its stake in Essent Group by 154.7% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 208,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $13,431,000 after buying an additional 126,899 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $85,500,000 after buying an additional 19,387 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 10.8% during 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 last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in Essent Group by 39.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 4,207 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 1,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Essent Group by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 60,250 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,294,000 after acquiring an additional 811 shares during the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ESNT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Essent Group from $71.00 to $65.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Barclays downgraded Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 price target on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Essent Group from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Essent Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $61.71.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of Essent Group stock opened at $55.55 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $55.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $56.68. Essent Group Ltd. has a 52-week low of $51.61 and a 52-week high of $65.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.80.

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

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a $0.31 dividend. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.13%.

Essent Group Company 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.