Private mortgage insurance (PMI) provider for U.S. residential housing market. Insures low down payment mortgages, enabling GSE purchases. Founded 1981. | Financial Services — Mortgage Insurance | AGI Score: 4/10 | Analysis date: 2026-03-13
Mortgage insurance is a high-margin, capital-light business trading at tangible book value. 13% ROE, massive buybacks (-9% shares), $674M net income on a $5.8B market cap. The AMR playbook: cheap on assets, buying back stock, generating cash. AGI risk is real (underwriting commoditization) but the balance sheet is a fortress.
Enact is a leading private mortgage insurance company serving the U.S. housing finance market since 1981. The company provides mortgage insurance on low down payment loans, facilitating GSE purchases and protecting lenders against borrower default, with $51B in new insurance written in 2024.
| Sector | Financial Services |
| Industry | Insurance - Specialty |
| Employees | 419 |
| ROE | 13.0% |
| ROA | 8.5% |
| Gross Margin | 73.6% |
| Operating Margin | 75.3% |
| Profit Margin | 54.6% |
| 52-Week Range | $31.28 — $44.8 |
| Beta | 0.506 |
| Avg Volume | 313,115 |
| Short Ratio | 9.55 |
| EV / EBITDA | — |
| Analyst Target | $45.6 (hold) |
| Float Shares | 26M |
| Payout Ratio | 18.0% |
| Item | Value | % of Assets | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASSETS ($6.9B) | |||
| Cash & Equivalents | $582M | 8.4% | |
| Other Assets | $6.3B | 91.6% | Receivables, investments, etc. |
| LIABILITIES | |||
| Long-Term Debt | $744M | 10.8% | |
| Other Liabilities | $794M | 11.5% | |
| EQUITY | |||
| Stockholders' Equity | $5.4B | 77.7% | |
| Tangible Book Value | $5.4B | Equity minus goodwill & intangibles | |
| Tangible Book / Share | $37.84 | vs price $40.49 | |
| Metric | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.2B | $1.2B | $1.2B |
| Net Income | $547M | $704M | $666M | $688M | $674M |
| Total Assets | $5.9B | $5.7B | $6.2B | $6.5B | $6.9B |
| Equity | $4.1B | $4.1B | $4.6B | $5.0B | $5.4B |
| Long-Term Debt | $740M | $743M | $745M | $743M | $744M |
| Cash | $426M | $514M | $616M | $599M | $582M |
| OCF | $572M | $561M | $632M | $686M | $725M |
| PP&E | — | — | — | — | — |
| Goodwill | — | — | — | — | — |
| Shares (Diluted) | 163M | 163M | 162M | 158M | 149M |
| Period | Shares (Diluted) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-12-31 | 162,879,000 | |
| 2022-12-31 | 163,294,000 | +0.3% |
| 2023-12-31 | 161,847,000 | -0.9% |
| 2024-12-31 | 157,554,000 | -2.7% |
| 2025-12-31 | 149,318,000 | -5.2% |
| Total Change | -8.3% |
Significant buyback activity. Share count declining 8% over the period. This mechanically increases EPS and book value per share even with no underlying growth.
Current EPS: $4.52 | Current Book/Share: $35.86 | Current Price: $40.49
| Scenario | 7yr Future Price | Entry for 10x | vs Current | Assumptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $92.87 | $9.29 | +336% below | 8% EPS growth, 12x exit P/E |
| Bull Case | $180.17 | $18.02 | +125% below | 15% EPS growth, 15x exit P/E |
| Buyback Only | $60.83 | $6.08 | +566% | No revenue growth, buybacks continue at current rate, 12x P/E |
| Demand Boost | 1/10 | How much AGI increases demand for this company's products |
| Margin Expansion | 7/10 | How much AGI reduces costs / expands margins |
| Strategic Assets | 5/10 | Unique assets that become more valuable with AGI |
| Disruption Risk | 6/10 | Risk that AGI disrupts the core business model |
| Innovation Risk | 4/10 | Risk of being out-innovated by AGI-native competitors |
| Overall AGI Score | 4/10 | Category: labor_margin_play |
Reasoning: Mortgage insurance is fundamentally about pricing credit risk—exactly what AGI excels at. The company's 'decades of loan-level data and experience' becomes commoditized when AGI analyzes all data instantly with superior accuracy. Labor costs can fall dramatically (416 employees at EMICO), but pricing power is weak in a competitive six-player market. AGI enables perfect risk assessment, compressing industry margins. The company's scale ($51B NIW) and GSE approval provide near-term moat, but long-term the industry faces margin compression as AGI makes risk pricing a commodity. PMIERs capital requirements and regulatory moat provide some defensibility.
ACT (Enact Holdings) trades at 1.08x book value (1.07x tangible book) with $674M net income on a $5.8B market cap (11.5% earnings yield). ROE of 13.0%. Shares have declined 8% over the measurement period through buybacks.
Verdict: WATCHLIST. Mortgage insurance is a high-quality, capital-light business with recurring premiums. ACT generates $674M net income with only 419 employees. The P/TB of 1.07x is reasonable but not deeply discounted. The AMR playbook applies: buybacks are compounding EPS. The risk is that AGI commoditizes credit risk pricing, but that is a slow-moving threat. A housing crash is the faster risk — watch delinquency trends. Entry zone: $30-33 (floor based on tangible book minus stress losses).
Data sources: SEC EDGAR XBRL (CIK 1823529), yfinance, 10-K filing, AGI scoring framework. Analysis date: 2026-03-13.