ESNT · Financials(surety insurance) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Signed in, this page also says what this company is inside your own portfolio: its weight, its share of your risk, and what buying or selling some of it would change. Sign in ›
Essent Group Ltd. reported revenue of $1.3 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 11.9% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin held steady at about 67.8% from 2016. Of the $6.4 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 17.1% went to buybacks and 9.7% to dividends; the share count rose 8.4%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 6 Piotroski tests; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20251.3B+11.9% a year over 9 years
Operating margin67.8%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay827.8M65.7% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score4/6tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
0500.0M1.0B1.5B
2016Revenue 458.3MOperating income 312.3M
2017Revenue 576.5MOperating income 403.7M
2018Revenue 719.4MOperating income 556.9M
2019Revenue 867.6MOperating income 669.2M
2020Revenue 955.2MOperating income 499.2M
2021Revenue 1.0BOperating income 830.6M
2022Revenue 1.0BOperating income 1.0B
2023Revenue 1.1BOperating income 853.1M
2024Revenue 1.2BOperating income 890.8M
2025Revenue 1.3BOperating income 854.6M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+8.0%
+5.7%
+11.9%
Operating income
-5.2%
+11.4%
+11.8%
Net income
-6.0%
+10.8%
+13.4%
Earnings per share
-3.7%
+12.2%
+12.4%
Free cash flow per share
+16.0%
+4.5%
+12.5%
Dividend per share
+12.6%
+13.3%
—
Shares
-2.4%
-1.2%
+0.9%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
0.0%50.0%100.0%150.0%
2016Operating 68.2%Net 48.6%Free cash flow 59.2%
2017Operating 70.0%Net 65.9%Free cash flow 63.4%
2018Operating 77.4%Net 65.0%Free cash flow 86.4%
2019Operating 77.1%Net 64.1%Free cash flow 67.6%
2020Operating 52.3%Net 43.2%Free cash flow 76.0%
2021Operating 80.8%Net 66.3%Free cash flow 68.7%
2022Operating 100.3%Net 83.1%Free cash flow 58.4%
2023Operating 76.9%Net 62.8%Free cash flow 68.4%
2024Operating 71.7%Net 58.7%Free cash flow 68.8%
2025Operating 67.8%Net 54.7%Free cash flow 67.3%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capitalCost of capital today · 10.2%
0.0%5.0%10.0%15.0%
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
12.0%
Return on assets
9.3%
Asset turnover
0.17×
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
0250.0M500.0M750.0M1.0B
2016Net income 222.6MFree cash flow 271.4MAfter stock-based pay 254.5M
2017Net income 379.7MFree cash flow 365.8MAfter stock-based pay 347.1M
2018Net income 467.4MFree cash flow 621.3MAfter stock-based pay 606.2M
2019Net income 555.7MFree cash flow 586.4MAfter stock-based pay 569.9M
2020Net income 413.0MFree cash flow 725.5MAfter stock-based pay 707.0M
2021Net income 681.8MFree cash flow 706.8MAfter stock-based pay 685.9M
2022Net income 831.4MFree cash flow 584.8MAfter stock-based pay 566.5M
2023Net income 696.4MFree cash flow 759.0MAfter stock-based pay 740.6M
2024Net income 729.4MFree cash flow 854.8MAfter stock-based pay 830.0M
2025Net income 690.0MFree cash flow 848.7MAfter stock-based pay 827.8M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
6.4B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 1%40.5M
Acquisitions 1%86.8M
Dividends 10%614.9M
Share buybacks 17%1.1B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 71%4.5B
Over the same years it paid 189.0M in stock. The share count rose 8.4%. 901.0M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$0.00$2.50$5.00$7.50$10.00
2016Earnings per share $2.41Free cash flow per share $2.94
2017Earnings per share $3.99Free cash flow per share $3.84Dividend per share $0.00
2018Earnings per share $4.77Free cash flow per share $6.34Dividend per share $0.00
2019Earnings per share $5.66Free cash flow per share $5.97Dividend per share $0.30
2020Earnings per share $3.88Free cash flow per share $6.82Dividend per share $0.65
2021Earnings per share $6.11Free cash flow per share $6.34Dividend per share $0.70
2022Earnings per share $7.72Free cash flow per share $5.43Dividend per share $0.86
2023Earnings per share $6.50Free cash flow per share $7.08Dividend per share $0.99
2024Earnings per share $6.85Free cash flow per share $8.02Dividend per share $1.11
2025Earnings per share $6.90Free cash flow per share $8.48Dividend per share $1.22
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
90.0M95.0M100.0M105.0M110.0M115.0M
2016Diluted shares 92.2M
2017Diluted shares 95.2M
2018Diluted shares 98.0M
2019Diluted shares 98.2M
2020Diluted shares 106.4M
2021Diluted shares 111.6M
2022Diluted shares 107.7M
2023Diluted shares 107.1M
2024Diluted shares 106.5M
2025Diluted shares 100.0M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
26× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
— current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
—
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 6 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
–More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✕Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforefailed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
The accounts lack a line it needs (retained earnings, current assets or liabilities).
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
The accounts lack too many of the lines it needs.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
Value per share, with these assumptions$112.26discounted at 10.2% a year · 50% of it from after year 10
Type a share price on the left to ask the reverse questions: what growth, what margin or what discount rate that price implies.
What the value implies, in the usual multiples
At this model's value
Price ÷ earnings
16.3×
Enterprise value ÷ EBITDA
13.1×
Enterprise value ÷ revenue
8.9×
Free cash flow yield
7.4%
From cash flows to a value per share
10 years of cash flow, today5.6B
Everything after, today5.6B
The whole business11.2B
Minus net debt-0
What belongs to shareholders11.2B
Divided among 100.0M shares: <strong>$112.26</strong> each.
The projection next to its history
Reported free cash flow after stock pay, then the model's. A projection that looks nothing like the past needs a reason.
ReportedProjected
0500.0M1.0B1.5B
2016Reported 254.5M
2017Reported 347.1M
2018Reported 606.2M
2019Reported 569.9M
2020Reported 707.0M
2021Reported 685.9M
2022Reported 566.5M
2023Reported 740.6M
2024Reported 830.0M
2025Reported 827.8M
2026Projected 784.9M
2027Projected 825.5M
2028Projected 865.4M
2029Projected 904.3M
2030Projected 942.0M
2031Projected 978.1M
2032Projected 1.0B
2033Projected 1.0B
2034Projected 1.1B
2035Projected 1.1B
2016201820202022202420262028203020322034
Year by year
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
2031
2032
2033
2034
2035
Revenue
1.3B
1.4B
1.5B
1.5B
1.6B
1.7B
1.7B
1.8B
1.8B
1.9B
Growth
5.5%
5.2%
4.8%
4.5%
4.2%
3.8%
3.5%
3.2%
2.8%
2.5%
Cash margin
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
59.0%
Free cash flow
784.9M
825.5M
865.4M
904.3M
942.0M
978.1M
1.0B
1.0B
1.1B
1.1B
Worth today
712.5M
680.1M
647.2M
613.9M
580.4M
547.0M
513.9M
481.2M
449.2M
417.9M
If the least-known inputs move
Value per share as two inputs change at a time. Neighbouring cells that differ a lot are the conclusion: the value depends on numbers nobody knows to a point.
The discount rate and growth forever
discount ↓ · forever →
1.5%
2.0%
2.5%
3.0%
3.5%
9.2%
116
122
129
138
148
9.7%
109
114
120
127
136
10.2%
102
107
112
118
125
10.7%
96
101
105
111
116
11.2%
91
95
99
104
109
Year-one growth and the final margin
margin ↓ · growth →
1.5%
3.5%
5.5%
7.5%
9.5%
47.2%
81
88
95
103
112
53.1%
88
96
104
112
122
59.0%
95
104
112
122
132
64.9%
102
111
121
131
142
70.8%
109
119
129
140
152
All the inputs moving at once
5,000 valuations, each with growth, final margin, discount rate and growth forever drawn at random around the values on the left (spreads of 3.0%, 8.9%, 1.0% and 0.5%). Not a probability — the spreads are assumptions too — but an honest picture of how wide the answer is.
10th percentile$86.07
Median$112.54
90th percentile$150.77
$100.00$150.00
Half of the simulations land between <b>$97.34</b> and <b>$129.88</b>; one in ten below $86.07, one in ten above $150.77.
Does the long run make sense?
11.6×The terminal value prices the business in year 10 at 11.6 times that year's EBITDA.
Free growthIn year 10 free cash flow is at or above after-tax operating profit, yet the model grows 2.5% forever. Growth needs reinvestment; this assumes it comes for free, which flatters the terminal value.
50%of the value comes from after year 10. The more of it, the more the answer depends on the part nobody can see.
What lenders charge, after the tax saving on interest: 6.67% × (1 − 16.0%) = <strong>5.60%</strong>.
Weighted by how much of each the company uses (book value (no price given)): <strong>10.17%</strong>, the rate every future cash flow is discounted at.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 6 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market$709,3423 sale(s) by 2 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans100%of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
Sold on the open market · pre-arranged plan· indirect
2,500
$68.70
$171,750
21,361
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Which large funds report holding it
From the Form 13F of the 28 institutions followed on this site, as of the end of their last reported quarter. A 13F is filed up to 45 days later and shows only long positions in US-listed shares.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.