Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Increases Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 24.8% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,893 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $170,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.3% during the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.6% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $911,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 66.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 5.3% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $87.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a PE ratio of 6.80 and a beta of 1.11. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $91.05 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.54. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $72.57 and a fifty-two week high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.34 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $199.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AGO shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

About Assured Guaranty

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.