Rakuten Investment Management Inc. Takes Position in Assurant, Inc. $AIZ

Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 8,914 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,931,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Assurant in the second quarter valued at $131,300,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Assurant by 482.8% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 621,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $122,805,000 after buying an additional 515,127 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its position in Assurant by 685.2% in the 3rd quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 452,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $97,851,000 after acquiring an additional 394,694 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in Assurant by 1,222.0% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 356,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $70,319,000 after acquiring an additional 329,131 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Assurant by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,051,114 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $800,054,000 after acquiring an additional 310,455 shares during the last quarter. 92.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AIZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Assurant from $252.00 to $264.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Zacks Research cut shares of Assurant from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assurant from $255.00 to $257.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Truist Financial set a $255.00 target price on shares of Assurant in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Assurant from $248.00 to $254.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $252.67.

Assurant Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE:AIZ opened at $233.28 on Friday. Assurant, Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.97 and a 1 year high of $243.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a current ratio of 0.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $232.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $216.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.20 and a beta of 0.56.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The financial services provider reported $5.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.23 by $1.50. The business had revenue of $3.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.15 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 6.75% and a return on equity of 18.61%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.00 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 29th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 1st were given a dividend of $0.88 per share. This represents a $3.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 1st. This is a positive change from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.80. Assurant’s payout ratio is 21.42%.

Assurant Company Profile

Assurant, Inc is a global provider of risk management products and services, specializing in the housing and lifestyle markets. The company offers insurance and related products designed to help consumers protect their homes, personal belongings, and electronic devices. Its core offerings include renters insurance, manufactured housing finance, flood insurance, mobile device protection plans, and extended service contracts for appliances and electronics.

Within its Global Housing segment, Assurant partners with mortgage lenders, financial institutions and government agencies to deliver specialty insurance and risk mitigation services.