Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Shares Bought by Cooke & Bieler LP

Cooke & Bieler LP grew its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 45.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,228,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 700,730 shares during the period. Cooke & Bieler LP’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $121,343,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ESNT. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 132.4% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 424,542 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,294,000 after buying an additional 241,840 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 31.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 984,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $53,591,000 after buying an additional 233,636 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 154.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 208,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $13,431,000 after buying an additional 126,899 shares during the period. Walleye Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 45.5% during the 3rd quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 345,675 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,223,000 after buying an additional 108,061 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 10.8% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,021,343 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $65,662,000 after buying an additional 99,604 shares during the period. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESNT has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $72.00 to $71.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price on shares of Essent Group in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Essent Group from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $69.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $62.57.

Essent Group Price Performance

Shares of ESNT stock opened at $55.64 on Tuesday. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12 month low of $52.22 and a 12 month high of $65.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.13, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $56.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $58.64.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.09). Essent Group had a return on equity of 13.35% and a net margin of 58.69%. The firm had revenue of $315.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $313.88 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.64 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Essent Group’s payout ratio is currently 18.13%.

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.