Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Has $314,000 Stock Holdings in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 23.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,956 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,800 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Essent Group were worth $314,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. raised its stake in Essent Group by 5.2% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 70,128 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,889,000 after buying an additional 3,493 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its holdings in Essent Group by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 40,472 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,668,000 after acquiring an additional 3,859 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Essent Group by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,995,922 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $617,982,000 after acquiring an additional 71,629 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 59,234 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,441,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Essent Group by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,798,959 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $74,139,000 after purchasing an additional 103,375 shares in the last quarter. 93.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ESNT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Essent Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 4th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $58.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.38.

Essent Group Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of ESNT opened at $52.63 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $54.83 and its 200 day moving average is $52.00. Essent Group Ltd. has a 12-month low of $40.33 and a 12-month high of $59.90. The stock has a market cap of $5.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 1.04.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $297.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $286.18 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 62.75% and a return on equity of 14.44%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 29.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.37 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.13%. This is an increase from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Essent Group’s payout ratio is 17.23%.

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.