Oak Thistle LLC Takes $613,000 Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 7,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $613,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 58.3% in the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $151,549,000 after buying an additional 660,009 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter worth about $45,606,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 176.3% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 366,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,935,000 after acquiring an additional 233,966 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 60.7% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 481,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,957,000 after purchasing an additional 182,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HRT Financial LP acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $7,739,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 1.8%

NYSE:AGO opened at $90.50 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a PE ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 0.91. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $86.23 and a 200-day moving average of $84.52. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $1.03. The business had revenue of $207.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.76 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 40.65%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 23.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. Analysts predict 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, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.87%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 1,882 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.64, for a total value of $31,316.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,281,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,877,703.68. This represents a 0.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 41,929 shares of company stock worth $2,386,674. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGO has been the topic of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.00.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.