Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Given New $105.00 Price Target at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) had its price target boosted by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $92.00 to $105.00 in a report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target points to a potential upside of 14.69% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on AGO. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $91.55 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.10. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $65.39 and a one year high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $83.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $79.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after acquiring an additional 144 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 14.5% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.7% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Company 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.