Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) Price Target to $61.00

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) had its price objective lowered by Royal Bank of Canada from $64.00 to $61.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

ESNT has been the subject of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Essent Group from an overweight rating to a neutral rating and raised their price target for the company from $58.00 to $61.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. StockNews.com cut Essent Group from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $58.75.

Essent Group Trading Down 0.7 %

ESNT opened at $56.01 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.34 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.67. The company has a market cap of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.83 and a beta of 1.05. Essent Group has a 12-month low of $42.52 and a 12-month high of $59.90.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The financial services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.56 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 14.24% and a net margin of 61.40%. The firm had revenue of $298.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $298.69 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.59 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Essent Group will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 31st. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.94%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Essent Group

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 3rd quarter valued at about $77,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in shares of Essent Group by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,543 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $126,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Essent Group

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.