HighTower Advisors LLC Has $247,000 Position in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ)

HighTower Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Assurant, Inc. (NYSE:AIZ) by 42.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,229 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 902 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assurant were worth $247,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AIZ. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Assurant by 100.0% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,528 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,917,000 after purchasing an additional 5,763 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assurant in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in Assurant by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 153,124 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,457,000 after acquiring an additional 9,699 shares during the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Assurant by 9.7% during the 2nd quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $576,000 after buying an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its stake in Assurant by 40.2% in the second quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 1,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $315,000 after acquiring an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. 92.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AIZ has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Assurant from $200.00 to $217.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target 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 lifted their target price on Assurant from $217.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Assurant from $228.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of Assurant from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $229.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assurant

In other Assurant news, EVP Biju Nair sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 12.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.53% of the company’s stock.

Assurant Stock Performance

Shares of Assurant stock opened at $215.43 on Wednesday. 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 $210.66 and a 200-day moving average of $191.45. 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 company has a market cap of $11.05 billion, a PE ratio of 15.37 and a beta of 0.61.

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $3.00 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $2.94 billion. Assurant had a net margin of 6.31% and a return on equity of 17.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.29 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Assurant, Inc. will post 15.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assurant Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 9th will be issued a $0.80 dividend. This represents a $3.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 9th. This is a boost from Assurant’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Assurant’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.82%.

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.