Essent Group Ltd. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.28 (NYSE:ESNT)

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, August 2nd, NASDAQ reports. Investors of record on Friday, August 30th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the financial services provider on Tuesday, September 10th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th.

Essent Group has raised its dividend by an average of 16.0% per year over the last three years. Essent Group has a dividend payout ratio of 15.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Essent Group to earn $7.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.7%.

Essent Group Trading Up 0.3 %

ESNT stock opened at $63.10 on Wednesday. Essent Group has a 1 year low of $45.63 and a 1 year high of $64.05. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $56.64. The firm has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.11.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The financial services provider reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $272.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $308.33 million. Essent Group had a net margin of 61.40% and a return on equity of 14.24%. The business’s revenue was up 9.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.61 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Essent Group will post 6.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on ESNT shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Essent Group from $63.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $61.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $62.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Essent Group from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $64.33.

Insider Transactions at Essent Group

In other news, SVP Vijay Bhasin sold 11,188 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.14, for a total transaction of $672,846.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 199,359 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,989,450.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Essent Group news, Director Roy James Kasmar sold 5,000 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.81, for a total value of $294,050.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,596,103.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Vijay Bhasin sold 11,188 shares of Essent Group stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.14, for a total transaction of $672,846.32. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 199,359 shares in the company, valued at $11,989,450.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

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.