Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) Shares Sold by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC reduced its position in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 36.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,105 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 17,193 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.06% of Assurant worth $5,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AIZ. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Assurant by 21.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,238,477 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $464,981,000 after buying an additional 573,309 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Assurant by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,748,162 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $394,581,000 after purchasing an additional 191,750 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Assurant by 75.1% during the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 376,975 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $54,126,000 after buying an additional 161,671 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Assurant by 279.1% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 179,663 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,271,000 after buying an additional 132,275 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Assurant by 6.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,865,496 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $267,848,000 after buying an additional 109,123 shares during the last quarter. 92.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Assurant from $195.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $191.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered shares of Assurant from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $170.00 to $182.00 in a research note on Monday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Assurant has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $192.20.

Assurant Price Performance

Shares of Assurant stock opened at $176.31 on Wednesday. Assurant, Inc. has a 52 week low of $115.77 and a 52 week high of $189.48. The company has a current ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The stock has a market cap of $9.16 billion, a PE ratio of 14.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $178.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $168.69.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The financial services provider reported $4.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.70 by $0.88. The firm had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.78 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 5.77% and a return on equity of 18.36%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Profile

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.