First Manhattan CO. LLC. Purchases 14,610 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. raised its position in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 394,044 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 14,610 shares during the quarter. First Manhattan CO. LLC.’s holdings in Assurant were worth $84,018,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of Assurant by 48.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 192,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $38,243,000 after acquiring an additional 62,696 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Assurant by 6.4% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 72,260 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $14,370,000 after buying an additional 4,317 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Assurant by 5.4% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 11,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,371,000 after buying an additional 571 shares during the period. Accurate Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Assurant during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,728,000. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in Assurant in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $986,000. 92.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Assurant from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assurant from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler raised shares of Assurant from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $223.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on shares of Assurant from $230.00 to $224.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $234.17.

Assurant Stock Performance

NYSE AIZ opened at $194.63 on Friday. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $160.12 and a 1-year high of $230.55. The company has a 50 day moving average of $198.84 and a 200-day moving average of $206.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The firm has a market cap of $9.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45 and a beta of 0.59.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 6th. The financial services provider reported $3.39 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.61. Assurant had a net margin of 6.40% and a return on equity of 17.25%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.06 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.78 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assurant, Inc. will post 16.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Assurant

In related news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $201.50, for a total value of $604,500.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 17,708 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,568,162. This represents a 14.49 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.51% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.