DOWLING & PARTN Comments on Essent Group FY2026 Earnings

Essent Group Ltd. (NYSE:ESNT) – Research analysts at DOWLING & PARTN issued their FY2026 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Essent Group in a research report issued on Wednesday, May 20th. DOWLING & PARTN analyst G. Dunn forecasts that the financial services provider will earn $7.05 per share for the year. The consensus estimate for Essent Group’s current full-year earnings is $7.32 per share. DOWLING & PARTN also issued estimates for Essent Group’s FY2027 earnings at $7.25 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $7.60 EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on ESNT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Essent Group from $65.00 to $64.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Barclays increased their price target on Essent Group from $61.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on Essent Group in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $68.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Essent Group in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Essent Group from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $67.86.

Essent Group Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Essent Group stock opened at $59.39 on Thursday. Essent Group has a fifty-two week low of $55.22 and a fifty-two week high of $67.09. The firm has a market cap of $5.47 billion, a PE ratio of 8.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.81. The business’s fifty day moving average is $60.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.79. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $1.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.14. Essent Group had a return on equity of 12.01% and a net margin of 53.64%.The company had revenue of $336.07 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $297.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.69 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Institutional Trading of Essent Group

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ESNT. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 2nd quarter worth $346,000. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 2nd quarter worth $239,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Essent Group by 160.0% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,080 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $126,000 after buying an additional 1,280 shares during the last quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 2nd quarter worth $211,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Essent Group during the 2nd quarter worth $224,000. 93.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Mark Casale sold 13,064 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.05, for a total transaction of $849,813.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,218,480 shares in the company, valued at $144,312,124. This represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Mary Lourdes Gibbons sold 4,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.01, for a total value of $276,292.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 233,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,169,173.36. The trade was a 1.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,814 shares of company stock valued at $1,661,682. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Essent Group Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 1st. Essent Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.