How to buy Essent Group stock | $48.64

Essent Group Ltd is a mortgage finance business based in the US. Essent Group shares (ESNT) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Essent Group employs 383 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$936.7 million.

How to buy shares in Essent Group

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Essent Group. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: ESNT. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Essent Group reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$48.64, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Essent Group, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Essent Group. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Essent Group share price

Use our graph to track the performance of ESNT stocks over time.

Essent Group shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-27.

Latest market close	USD$48.64
52-week range	USD$17.2961 - USD$52.1261
50-day moving average	USD$44.6176
200-day moving average	USD$39.0553
Wall St. target price	USD$53.33
PE ratio	10.3439
Dividend yield	USD$0.64 (1.45%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$4.245

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Is it a good time to buy Essent Group stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Essent Group Ltd by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Essent Group price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $48.64 from 2021-01-11

1 week (2021-01-08)	1.50%
1 month (2020-12-15)	8.43%
3 months (2020-10-15)	13.57%
6 months (2020-07-15)	38.14%

1 year (2020-01-15)	-3.95%
2 years (2019-01-15)	30.86%
3 years (2018-01-12)	1.16%
5 years (2016-01-15)	148.54%

Is Essent Group under- or over-valued?

Valuing Essent Group stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Essent Group's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Essent Group's P/E ratio

Essent Group's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 10x. In other words, Essent Group shares trade at around 10x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Essent Group's PEG ratio

Essent Group's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.84. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Essent Group's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Essent Group's EBITDA

Essent Group's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$531 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Essent Group's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Essent Group financials

Revenue TTM	USD$936.7 million
Operating margin TTM	56.31%
Gross profit TTM	USD$780.4 million
Return on assets TTM	7.47%
Return on equity TTM	13.22%
Profit margin	46.59%
Book value	$33.325
Market capitalisation	USD$4.9 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Essent Group shares

There are currently 5.1 million Essent Group shares held short by investors – that's known as Essent Group's "short interest". This figure is 0.7% down from 5.2 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Essent Group shares can be evaluated.

Essent Group's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Essent Group's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Essent Group shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Essent Group shares traded daily (recently around 736479.77044476). Essent Group's SIR currently stands at 6.97. In other words for every 100,000 Essent Group shares traded daily on the market, roughly 6970 shares are currently held short.

However Essent Group's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Essent Group shares, or, against the total number of tradable Essent Group shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Essent Group's short interest could be expressed as 0.05% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Essent Group shares in existence, roughly 50 shares are currently held short) or 0.0468% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Essent Group shares, roughly 47 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Essent Group.

Find out more about how you can short Essent Group stock.

Essent Group share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 14.99% of net profits

Recently Essent Group has paid out, on average, around 14.99% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.45% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Essent Group shareholders could enjoy a 1.45% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Essent Group's case, that would currently equate to about $0.64 per share.

While Essent Group's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Essent Group is investing more in its future growth.

Essent Group's most recent dividend payout was on 10 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 30 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Essent Group share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Essent Group's shares have ranged in value from as little as $17.2961 up to $52.1261. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Essent Group's is 1.3748. This would suggest that Essent Group's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Essent Group overview

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; and contract underwriting services. It serves the originators of residential mortgage loans, such as regulated depository institutions, mortgage banks, credit unions, and other lenders. The company was founded in 2008 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Essent Group is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 2.278% of Essent Group shares are held by insiders and 100.384% by institutions.

• How many people work for Essent Group?

  Latest data suggests 383 work at Essent Group.

• When does the fiscal year end for Essent Group?

  Essent Group's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Essent Group based?

  Essent Group's address is: Clarendon House, Hamilton, Bermuda, HM 11

• What is Essent Group's ISIN number?

  Essent Group's international securities identification number is: BMG3198U1027

• What is Essent Group's CUSIP number?

  Essent Group's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: G3198U102