Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Decreases Stock Holdings in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its holdings in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ – Get Rating) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 922,224 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,950 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Assurant were worth $115,337,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AIZ. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Assurant by 53.7% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,622,996 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $295,111,000 after purchasing an additional 566,763 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Assurant by 1,315.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 548,282 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $79,648,000 after acquiring an additional 509,557 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Assurant by 21.8% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,614,981 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $379,879,000 after acquiring an additional 467,815 shares during the period. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in Assurant in the 3rd quarter valued at about $55,977,000. Finally, Edmp Inc. bought a new position in Assurant in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,890,000. 95.86% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AIZ. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Assurant from $160.00 to $164.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. TheStreet upgraded shares of Assurant from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 10th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assurant from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 21st. StockNews.com cut shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Assurant from $133.00 to $129.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $136.00.

Assurant Price Performance

Shares of Assurant stock opened at $128.98 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $125.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $104.49 and a 1-year high of $185.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.79, a PEG ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.54.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ – Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 2nd. The financial services provider reported $3.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.32 by $1.17. The business had revenue of $2.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.60 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 13.47%. Assurant’s revenue was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assurant, Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 30th will be issued a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 26th. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.50%.

Assurant Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Assurant, Inc engages in the provision of lifestyle and housing solutions of consumer purchases. It operates through Global Lifestyle and Global Housing segments. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions and extended service products and related services for mobile devices, consumer electronics and appliances, vehicle protection and related services.