Comerica Bank Sells 824 Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Comerica Bank trimmed its stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT – Get Rating) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 48,524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 824 shares during the period. Comerica Bank’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $1,783,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in ESNT. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Essent Group in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $50,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Essent Group by 43.9% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Essent Group in the 2nd quarter valued at $112,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Essent Group by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,281 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $114,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Essent Group during the 1st quarter worth $149,000. 92.07% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Essent Group Stock Up 1.5 %

ESNT stock opened at $40.92 on Friday. Essent Group Ltd. has a twelve month low of $34.27 and a twelve month high of $47.26. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a PE ratio of 5.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.17. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.11.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.55 by $0.11. Essent Group had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 84.17%. The company had revenue of $261.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $241.69 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.93 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.23 per share. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 30th. Essent Group’s payout ratio is 11.53%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESNT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, January 5th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Essent Group from $53.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $53.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, TheStreet downgraded shares of Essent Group from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Essent Group presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.60.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Aditya Dutt sold 6,000 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.23, for a total transaction of $235,380.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,023 shares in the company, valued at approximately $903,192.29. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 2.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Essent Group

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Essent Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of banking services. It offers mortgage insurance, reinsurance, and risk management products. The company was founded by Mark A. Casale on July 1, 2008 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.