Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) EVP Sells $604,500.00 in Stock

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.50, for a total transaction of $604,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,708 shares in the company, valued at $3,568,162. This trade represents a 14.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website.

Assurant Stock Up 0.5 %

AIZ stock opened at $201.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.42. Assurant, Inc. has a 52-week low of $160.12 and a 52-week high of $230.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $210.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $203.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91 and a beta of 0.62.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The financial services provider reported $4.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.96 by $0.83. Assurant had a net margin of 6.40% and a return on equity of 17.25%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 EPS for the current year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Assurant’s payout ratio is presently 22.11%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assurant

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AIZ. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 1.1% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 6,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,376,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 86.1% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 657 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $131,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 1.0% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 7,615 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,514,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Assurant in the third quarter valued at about $681,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assurant in the third quarter valued at about $284,730,000. Institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on AIZ shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Assurant in a report on Thursday, December 5th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $251.00 price objective for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assurant from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $212.00 to $230.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Assurant from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.17.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services.