Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Acquired by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 68.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,650 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,886 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $405,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at about $293,632,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,138,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,156,000 after purchasing an additional 3,588 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,012,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,206,000 after purchasing an additional 109,282 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,000,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,167,000 after purchasing an additional 10,567 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 581,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,267,000 after purchasing an additional 48,631 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group decreased their target price on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.50.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO stock opened at $82.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.13 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $83.85. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $74.09 and a 12-month high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by ($0.56). The firm had revenue of $281.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.91 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%.The business’s revenue was up 39.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.44 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value of $3,260,400.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 291,728 shares in the company, valued at $23,778,749.28. This represents a 12.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 79,089 shares of company stock worth $5,599,792 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

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.