Federated Hermes Inc. Grows Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 12.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,816 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $838,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Essent Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,453,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $68,720,000 after purchasing an additional 14,145 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Essent Group by 6,932.3% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 47,187 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 46,516 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Essent Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,471,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,576,000 after purchasing an additional 35,484 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its stake in Essent Group by 533.4% during the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 257,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 216,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP bought a new position in Essent Group during the third quarter worth $534,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT opened at $53.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.04. Essent Group Ltd. has a one year low of $40.33 and a one year high of $59.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $55.07 and its 200-day moving average is $52.42.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 62.75%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.37 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.09%. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.23%.

About Essent Group

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.