Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) Short Interest Update

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) was the target of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 834,000 shares, a growth of 19.4% from the December 15th total of 698,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 348,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 1.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Assurant Price Performance

Shares of Assurant stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $211.39. 345,470 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 281,810. The company has a market capitalization of $10.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.08 and a beta of 0.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $215.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $197.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42. Assurant has a 52-week low of $160.12 and a 52-week high of $230.55.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Assurant had a return on equity of 17.42% and a net margin of 6.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.29 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Assurant will post 15.38 EPS for the current year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Assurant’s payout ratio is 22.82%.

Insider Activity at Assurant

In other news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,321,240.44. This represents a 12.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its stake in Assurant by 11,480.4% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 464,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,460,000 after purchasing an additional 460,937 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Assurant by 32.5% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,041,678 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $173,179,000 after purchasing an additional 255,471 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Assurant in the third quarter worth about $48,430,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Assurant in the third quarter worth about $284,730,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Assurant in the third quarter worth about $26,630,000. Institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on AIZ. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America increased their price target on Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Assurant has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $229.50.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.