Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT Shares Sold by Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd cut its holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 67.6% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 6,920 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 14,458 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $404,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ESNT. Strs Ohio raised its position in Essent Group by 16.3% in the first quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 11,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $666,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares in the last quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 111.8% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares in the last quarter. Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 8.1% during the 1st quarter. Groesbeck Investment Management Corp NJ now owns 11,960 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $699,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 409,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,920,000 after purchasing an additional 30,924 shares during the period. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 49,403 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,887,000 after purchasing an additional 323 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ESNT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Roth Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $65.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Essent Group from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.71.

Essent Group Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $65.32 on Wednesday. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $55.22 and a fifty-two week high of $67.09. The stock has a market cap of $6.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.30, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $60.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 53.64% and a return on equity of 12.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.69 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. Essent Group’s payout ratio is presently 19.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Essent Group

In other news, CFO David B. Weinstock sold 5,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total transaction of $349,305.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,254,223.94. This trade represents a 13.42% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 29,329 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.35, for a total value of $1,916,650.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,184,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,733,745.05. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 65,651 shares of company stock valued at $4,253,294 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.60% 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.