27,755 Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Purchased by Bank of Nova Scotia

Bank of Nova Scotia acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 27,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,225,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at about $463,926,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,538,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $23,025,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 176.3% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 366,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,935,000 after purchasing an additional 233,966 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 261.9% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 142,761 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,830,000 after purchasing an additional 230,920 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AGO. Weiss Ratings cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Roth Capital downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group raised Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $76.11 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.76 and a 1 year high of $92.39. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $80.38 and its 200 day moving average price is $81.02.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%.The company had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is currently 20.27%.

About Assured Guaranty

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.