Walleye Capital LLC Reduces Position in Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT

Walleye Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 50.9% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 186,408 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 192,859 shares during the quarter. Walleye Capital LLC’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $10,894,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ESNT. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 5.6% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $211,000 after acquiring an additional 172 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its position in Essent Group by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 16,584 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,078,000 after purchasing an additional 204 shares during the period. Clearstead Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 26.4% in the fourth quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 1,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Trexquant Investment LP boosted its holdings in Essent Group by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 38,436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,499,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in Essent Group by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 21,801 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,324,000 after purchasing an additional 261 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Essent Group in a report on Friday, May 22nd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 price target on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Essent Group from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings raised Essent Group from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Roth Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $65.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.71.

Essent Group Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:ESNT opened at $65.01 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.76. Essent Group Ltd. has a one year low of $55.34 and a one year high of $67.46. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $61.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $61.24.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last announced its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.Essent Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.69 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.24 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 1st. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.94%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Mark Casale sold 29,329 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.35, for a total transaction of $1,916,650.15. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,184,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $142,733,745.05. The trade was a 1.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO David B. Weinstock sold 5,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total transaction of $349,305.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,494 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,254,223.94. This represents a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 57,151 shares of company stock valued at $3,717,718 in the last ninety days. 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.