ORG Wealth Partners LLC Sells 63 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

ORG Wealth Partners LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 10.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 63 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Assurant were worth $119,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Pensionfund Sabic grew its holdings in Assurant by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 7,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,493,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Assurant by 34.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $314,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Assurant by 17.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 171,370 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $34,079,000 after purchasing an additional 24,887 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in Assurant by 6.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 72,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,370,000 after purchasing an additional 4,317 shares during the period. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Assurant during the third quarter worth about $244,000. Institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AIZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Assurant in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com cut Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $229.50.

Assurant Stock Down 3.1 %

NYSE AIZ opened at $198.95 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $160.12 and a 1-year high of $230.55. The company has a 50 day moving average of $215.20 and a 200-day moving average of $195.17. The company has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.19 and a beta of 0.62.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.48. Assurant had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 17.42%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th were given a dividend of $0.80 per share. This is an increase from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 9th. Assurant’s payout ratio is currently 22.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assurant

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

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.