Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons Sells 872 Shares

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 872 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.00, for a total transaction of $54,936.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 245,214 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,448,482. This trade represents a 0.35% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Mary Lourdes Gibbons also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 20th, Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 7,628 shares of Essent Group stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.01, for a total transaction of $480,640.28.

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of ESNT traded up $0.48 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $63.15. The stock had a trading volume of 747,093 shares, compared to its average volume of 723,294. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $59.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.52. Essent Group Ltd. has a one year low of $54.29 and a one year high of $67.09. The firm has a market cap of $5.94 billion, a PE ratio of 9.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 1.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.74 by ($0.14). Essent Group had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 12.09%. The firm had revenue of $312.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $312.62 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.58 EPS. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.27 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a $0.35 dividend. This is a boost from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is 20.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on ESNT. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of Essent Group in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Essent Group from $63.00 to $61.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 6th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $67.86.

Institutional Trading of Essent Group

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC bought a new stake in Essent Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 45.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 624 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 195 shares during the period. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 97.1% in the 4th quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 676 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

About Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a publicly traded insurance holding company specializing in private mortgage insurance and mortgage reinsurance solutions. Through its primary subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, the company provides credit protection to mortgage lenders, helping mitigate the risk of borrower default on residential mortgage loans. Essent’s insurance policies enable lenders to offer low-down-payment programs, supporting homebuyers in achieving homeownership with reduced upfront equity requirements.

Beyond traditional mortgage insurance, Essent offers a suite of risk management and analytics services designed to help financial institutions monitor and manage mortgage portfolios.