Peregrine Capital Management LLC Cuts Position in Essent Group Ltd. $ESNT

Peregrine Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) by 4.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 207,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,812 shares during the period. Peregrine Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.22% of Essent Group worth $12,145,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Essent Group by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 11,987,945 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $779,336,000 after acquiring an additional 85,295 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL increased its stake in Essent Group by 21.3% in the 3rd quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL now owns 437,890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,832,000 after purchasing an additional 76,855 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Essent Group in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,983,000. CWM LLC raised its holdings in Essent Group by 132.2% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 42,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,756,000 after purchasing an additional 24,139 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in Essent Group during the fourth quarter worth $1,136,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO David B. Weinstock sold 5,500 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.51, for a total transaction of $349,305.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,494 shares in the company, valued at $2,254,223.94. The trade was a 13.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,218,480 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $144,312,124. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 31,314 shares of company stock valued at $2,010,987 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their target price on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada began coverage on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Essent Group from $73.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $66.57.

Essent Group Stock Performance

NYSE ESNT opened at $64.28 on Wednesday. Essent Group Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $55.22 and a fifty-two week high of $67.09. The stock has a market cap of $5.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a fifty day moving average of $60.52 and a 200-day moving average of $61.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.56 million. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.69 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Essent Group Ltd. will post 7.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 1st were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is 19.94%.

About Essent Group

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE: ESNT) is a publicly traded insurance holding company specializing in private mortgage insurance and mortgage reinsurance solutions. Through its primary subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, the company provides credit protection to mortgage lenders, helping mitigate the risk of borrower default on residential mortgage loans. Essent’s insurance policies enable lenders to offer low-down-payment programs, supporting homebuyers in achieving homeownership with reduced upfront equity requirements.

Beyond traditional mortgage insurance, Essent offers a suite of risk management and analytics services designed to help financial institutions monitor and manage mortgage portfolios.