GAMMA Investing LLC Makes New $88,000 Investment in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $88,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AIZ. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Assurant by 21.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,238,477 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $464,981,000 after buying an additional 573,309 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Assurant by 7.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,748,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $394,581,000 after buying an additional 191,750 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in shares of Assurant by 75.1% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 376,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,126,000 after buying an additional 161,671 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 279.1% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 179,663 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,271,000 after purchasing an additional 132,275 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 6.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,865,496 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $267,848,000 after purchasing an additional 109,123 shares during the period. 92.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assurant Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of AIZ stock opened at $175.21 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.41 and a quick ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $9.11 billion, a PE ratio of 14.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a 50-day moving average of $178.86 and a two-hundred day moving average of $169.49. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $118.45 and a 1-year high of $189.48.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $4.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.70 by $0.88. The company had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.78 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 18.36%. On average, analysts predict that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.67 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on AIZ shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assurant from $191.00 to $205.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Assurant from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $170.00 to $182.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Assurant from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $192.20.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.