California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 4,264 Shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its position in shares of Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 223,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,264 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.21% of Essent Group worth $11,767,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Essent Group by 1.0% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,453,168 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $68,720,000 after buying an additional 14,145 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in Essent Group by 6,932.3% during the third quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 47,187 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after purchasing an additional 46,516 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Essent Group by 2.5% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,471,258 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $69,576,000 after purchasing an additional 35,484 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in Essent Group by 533.4% during the third quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 257,359 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,171,000 after purchasing an additional 216,730 shares during the period. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Essent Group during the third quarter valued at approximately $534,000. 93.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Essent Group Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ESNT opened at $53.59 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $55.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.42. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $40.33 and a fifty-two week high of $59.90. The company has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.24, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 1.04.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $297.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $286.18 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.44% and a net margin of 62.75%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.37 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Essent Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.23%.

Essent Group 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.