Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Here’s What Happened

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) shares reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $71.96 and last traded at $71.9160, with a volume of 8105 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $72.93.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, UBS Group set a $91.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.52 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $78.52 and a 200-day moving average of $79.68. 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 (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. The company had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. This represents a 20.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,577 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 14.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 15,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,949 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 568.4% in the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 36,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,961,000 after acquiring an additional 31,416 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 856.5% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 75,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,079,000 after acquiring an additional 67,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 37.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 77,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,242,000 after acquiring an additional 21,363 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is a Bermuda-based financial services company that provides financial guarantees and related credit enhancement products. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps support the repayment of debt issued by public-sector entities, infrastructure projects and other borrowers.

The company’s principal business is financial guaranty insurance, which generally protects investors against scheduled principal and interest payment defaults on insured obligations.