Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 12,950 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 21st, 2023

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lessened its stake in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ – Get Rating) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 922,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,950 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 1.75% of Assurant worth $115,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Assurant by 0.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,701,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $973,455,000 after acquiring an additional 45,555 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Assurant by 6.0% in the third quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,370,365 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $780,154,000 after purchasing an additional 306,316 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in Assurant by 21.8% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,614,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $379,879,000 after purchasing an additional 467,815 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Assurant by 53.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,622,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $295,111,000 after purchasing an additional 566,763 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Assurant by 0.9% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,084,350 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $157,523,000 after purchasing an additional 9,604 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.86% of the company’s stock.

Assurant Stock Performance

Assurant stock opened at $128.98 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.01. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $104.49 and a 1-year high of $185.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $6.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.54.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 2nd. The financial services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $1.17. The firm had revenue of $2.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.60 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 13.47%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.75 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Assurant, Inc. will post 13.1 EPS for the current year.

Assurant Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 30th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 26th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio is presently 62.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AIZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. TheStreet raised shares of Assurant from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 12th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Assurant from $133.00 to $129.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assurant from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 21st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Assurant from $160.00 to $164.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Assurant has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $136.00.

About Assurant

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Assurant, Inc engages in the provision of lifestyle and housing solutions of consumer purchases. It operates through Global Lifestyle and Global Housing segments. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions and extended service products and related services for mobile devices, consumer electronics and appliances, vehicle protection and related services.