Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.31 Per Share

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 14th,NASDAQ Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, March 24th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

Essent Group has raised its dividend by an average of 17.0% annually over the last three years. Essent Group has a payout ratio of 15.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Essent Group to earn $6.96 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 16.1%.

Essent Group Price Performance

NYSE ESNT opened at $56.43 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $56.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $59.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.11. Essent Group has a 52-week low of $51.69 and a 52-week high of $65.33.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by ($0.09). Essent Group had a return on equity of 13.81% and a net margin of 60.15%. The company had revenue of $315.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.88 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. Essent Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Essent Group will post 6.94 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on ESNT shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Essent Group from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Essent Group from $68.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays downgraded Essent Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $58.00 in a report on Monday, January 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Essent Group from $67.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on Essent Group from $73.00 to $67.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Essent Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.71.

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.