Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.35 Per Share

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.35 per share by the financial services provider on Monday, March 23rd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a 12.9% increase from Essent Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31.

Essent Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.3%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 6 consecutive years. Essent Group has a dividend payout ratio of 17.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Essent Group to earn $7.20 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.2%.

Essent Group Trading Down 6.3%

Essent Group stock traded down $4.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $61.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,506,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 708,051. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $63.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $62.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68. Essent Group has a 12 month low of $51.61 and a 12 month high of $67.09. The stock has a market cap of $5.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.15 and a beta of 0.90.

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $1.60 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.74 by ($0.14). Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.40% and a net margin of 55.63%.The company had revenue of $312.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $312.62 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Essent Group will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

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.