Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Purchased by Farther Finance Advisors LLC

Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 183.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $47,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 155.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 14.5% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their price target on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of AGO stock opened at $91.54 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $82.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.06 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $65.39 and a 1-year high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. The company had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.63%.

Assured Guaranty Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments.