Fundamentals snapshot
ESNT · NYQ · Financial Services · Insurance - Specialty
Current price
$67.82
52-week range
$55.34 - $70.37
Market cap
$6.10B
One-glance verdict
We don't put a cash-flow fair value on banks and insurers. For these companies the reported 'cash flow' is really just money moving between loans, deposits and trades — not the leftover profit the owners could actually pocket — so the usual method would print a misleading number.
Balance sheet
Net cash $202.25M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
What this company does
Essent Group is an insurance company that primarily sells private mortgage insurance, which protects lenders if a homebuyer with a small down payment is unable to pay their mortgage. The company earns its money from the insurance premiums (the regular fees homeowners pay for this coverage), which means its financial health is closely linked to a strong housing market where people can reliably make their loan payments.
Essent Group was founded in 2008, right in the middle of the major housing crisis, by a management team that saw a need for a new, privately-funded mortgage insurer. This new company was designed to be free from the risky loans that caused problems for older insurers. Essent quickly gained approval to operate across the United States and became the first new mortgage insurer approved by government-sponsored housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac since 1995. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013 and has since grown to be a major player in helping people get mortgages.
Think of Essent as a helper for people who want to buy a home but don't have the traditional 20% down payment. The company provides private mortgage insurance (often called PMI), which protects the lender (the bank or mortgage company) in case the homebuyer can't make their payments. This protection gives lenders the confidence to approve loans for people with smaller down payments, making it possible for more families to own a home. In addition to this main service, Essent also offers insurance for real estate transactions and services to other insurance companies.
This is Essent's primary business, making up the vast majority of its operations. When a person buys a house with a small down payment, the lender takes on more risk; Essent's insurance covers a portion of that risk for the lender. The homebuyer pays a monthly premium (an ongoing fee for coverage) for this insurance, which is how Essent makes most of its money. This business segment serves mortgage lenders across the country, from big banks to local credit unions.
This is like insurance for insurance companies. Essent's reinsurance segment, operating from Bermuda, takes on a portion of the risk from other insurance companies, including its own mortgage insurance business. In exchange for taking on this risk, Essent receives a payment, known as a premium. This helps spread out the potential cost of claims over a wider pool, making the overall insurance system more stable. This is a smaller but growing part of Essent's overall business.
When you buy a house, you need to be sure that the seller truly owns it and that there are no hidden claims on the property. Essent's title insurance business provides this protection. It researches property records and then issues an insurance policy that protects the new owner and the lender from financial loss due to property ownership disputes. This segment also provides settlement services, which are the final steps in a real estate transaction where the property officially changes hands.
Essent's leadership is focused on a strategy they call "buy, manage, and distribute." This means they carefully select the mortgage risks they insure, manage that risk using technology and data, and then distribute some of that risk to other companies through reinsurance. They are heavily investing in technology, like their EssentEDGE platform, which uses advanced data analysis to price their insurance more accurately. The company is also focused on managing its capital (the money it has on hand to pay claims) wisely, including returning money to shareholders through dividends (a portion of profits paid out to investors) and share buybacks (when a company buys its own stock to reduce the number of shares available).
Price history
Earnings history
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
Is it cheap or expensive?
For a bank or insurer, the "free cash flow" shown on its statements is mostly money flowing through loans, deposits and trades — not the leftover profit the owners could actually keep, which is what this kind of valuation needs. Running that through the usual method would spit out a meaningless number, so we leave the cash-flow fair value out here rather than show you something misleading.
Is it drowning in debt?
Net cash $202.2M - more cash than debt. Interest coverage 26.1x.
Essent Group Ltd.'s profit covers its interest bill about 26.1 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Total debt $495.97M Interest coverage 26.14x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $646.87M Interest coverage 27.08x +4% vs ESNT Has roughly the same debt cushion as ESNT.
Total debt $745.23M Interest coverage 18.19x -30% vs ESNT Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than ESNT.
Total debt $1.34B Interest coverage 12.67x -52% vs ESNT Carries about 2.1x less debt cushion than ESNT.
Total debt $426.15M Interest coverage 18.55x -29% vs ESNT Carries about 1.4x less debt cushion than ESNT.
Total debt $4.29B Interest coverage 34.64x +33% vs ESNT Carries about 1.3x more debt cushion than ESNT.
What you should know
The numbers
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
Profitability
Health
Growth
Cash flow
Dividend
Metric explainer
Debt comparison
What you should know