Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 566,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,137 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned 0.53% of Essent Group worth $30,820,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Essent Group during the 4th quarter worth approximately $69,364,000. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 45.9% during the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,228,925 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $121,343,000 after purchasing an additional 700,730 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Essent Group by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,367,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $673,265,000 after buying an additional 432,034 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Essent Group by 884.8% in the 4th quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 266,537 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,510,000 after buying an additional 239,473 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in Essent Group by 31.1% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 984,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $53,591,000 after buying an additional 233,636 shares during the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Essent Group Stock Performance

Essent Group stock opened at $54.49 on Friday. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $52.22 and a fifty-two week high of $65.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 0.80. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $56.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $57.73.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.67 by ($0.09). Essent Group had a net margin of 58.69% and a return on equity of 13.35%. The business had revenue of $315.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.88 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 18.13%.

Essent Group Company Profile

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.