Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.09 EPS

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) released its earnings results on Friday. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.09), Zacks reports. The firm had revenue of $315.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.88 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 13.81% and a net margin of 60.15%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.64 earnings per share.

Essent Group Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of Essent Group stock traded down $1.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $56.86. 652,368 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 741,039. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $56.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $59.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.11. Essent Group has a twelve month low of $51.69 and a twelve month high of $65.33.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ESNT. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Essent Group from $68.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Essent Group from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Barclays cut Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Essent Group from $73.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.71.

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.