Radian Group Inc. (NYSE:RDN) Short Interest Update

Radian Group Inc. (NYSE:RDN) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 12,390,000 shares, a growth of 41.1% from the February 13th total of 8,780,000 shares. Currently, 8.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,260,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.8 days.

Insider Transactions at Radian Group

In other news, Director Gregory Serio sold 4,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.65, for a total transaction of $133,865.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 344 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,231.60. The trade was a 92.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 2.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Picton Mahoney Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Radian Group by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 972 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Radian Group by 35.6% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,351 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Radian Group by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 8,494 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 364 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its stake in shares of Radian Group by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 8,233 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $261,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Radian Group by 61.5% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,274 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 485 shares in the last quarter. 95.33% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on RDN shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Radian Group from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. UBS Group upped their price target on Radian Group from $33.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Radian Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.80.

Radian Group Stock Performance

Shares of RDN stock opened at $31.52 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.01. Radian Group has a fifty-two week low of $29.17 and a fifty-two week high of $37.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $32.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.62. The firm has a market cap of $4.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.02, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.04.

Radian Group (NYSE:RDN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The insurance provider reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.17. Radian Group had a return on equity of 13.96% and a net margin of 46.85%. Analysts predict that Radian Group will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Radian Group Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 24th were given a $0.255 dividend. This is a positive change from Radian Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. This represents a $1.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 24th. Radian Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.95%.

About Radian Group

Radian Group Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mortgage and real estate services business in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Homegenius segments. The Mortgage Insurance segment aggregates, manages, and distributes U.S. mortgage credit risk for mortgage lending institutions and mortgage credit investors, through private mortgage insurance on residential first-lien mortgage loans; and other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting.