Raymond James & Associates Buys 1,589 Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 11.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,589 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Essent Group were worth $821,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ESNT. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Essent Group by 982.3% in the third quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 363,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,172,000 after acquiring an additional 329,568 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Essent Group by 35.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,118,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,903,000 after purchasing an additional 289,937 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 533.4% during the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 257,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after buying an additional 216,730 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 276.7% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 90,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,290,000 after buying an additional 66,629 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC raised its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 17.7% in the third quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC now owns 441,753 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $20,890,000 after buying an additional 66,492 shares during the period. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $58.00 to $61.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $58.38.

Essent Group Stock Performance

NYSE ESNT opened at $53.92 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $54.88 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.17. Essent Group Ltd. has a one year low of $40.33 and a one year high of $59.90. The company has a market capitalization of $5.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.04.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $297.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $286.18 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 62.75% and a return on equity of 14.44%. Essent Group’s revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.37 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 17.23%.

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.