Short Interest in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) Grows By 19.4%

Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 834,000 shares, a growth of 19.4% from the December 15th total of 698,300 shares. Approximately 1.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 348,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Assurant Trading Down 0.1 %

AIZ traded down $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $211.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 345,470 shares, compared to its average volume of 281,810. Assurant has a 52-week low of $160.12 and a 52-week high of $230.55. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $215.81 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $196.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. The firm has a market cap of $10.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.08 and a beta of 0.62.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.52 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 17.42%. Assurant’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Assurant will post 15.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AIZ has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Assurant from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $229.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assurant news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,658 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,321,240.44. This represents a 12.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.53% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in Assurant by 6.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,163,593 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $231,392,000 after acquiring an additional 65,874 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Assurant by 32.5% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,041,678 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $173,179,000 after purchasing an additional 255,471 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Assurant by 1.9% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 698,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,159,000 after buying an additional 12,935 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in Assurant by 11,480.4% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 464,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $92,460,000 after buying an additional 460,937 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Assurant during the third quarter worth approximately $48,430,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Assurant Company Profile

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.