Freedom Investment Management Inc. Sells 118 Shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,700 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 118 shares during the period. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Assurant were worth $338,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Assurant by 6.0% in 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Assurant by 32.5% in 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 grew its position in Assurant by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 698,677 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $116,159,000 after purchasing an additional 12,935 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Assurant by 20.4% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 566,123 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $94,118,000 after purchasing an additional 96,021 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in Assurant by 11,480.4% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 464,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $92,460,000 after buying an additional 460,937 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.65% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assurant news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $209.18, for a total transaction of $627,540.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 20,658 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,321,240.44. This trade represents a 12.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Assurant Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of Assurant stock opened at $227.10 on Friday. Assurant, Inc. has a 1-year low of $160.12 and a 1-year high of $230.55. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $203.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $186.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.65 billion, a PE ratio of 16.20 and a beta of 0.57.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.52 by $0.48. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.94 billion. Assurant had a return on equity of 17.42% and a net margin of 6.31%. Assurant’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.80 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 9th. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.41%. This is an increase from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Assurant’s payout ratio is currently 22.82%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on AIZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Assurant from $194.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Assurant from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Truist Financial raised their price target on Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Assurant presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $225.20.

Assurant 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.