3,709 Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Purchased by 111 Capital

111 Capital bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 3,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $323,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.6% during the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $104,000. State of Wyoming boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 583.3% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,517 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 554.2% during the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $136,000 after buying an additional 1,308 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $203,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on AGO. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.50.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total transaction of $3,260,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 291,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $83.69 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $82.84 and a 200-day moving average of $84.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.99 billion, a PE ratio of 9.25 and a beta of 0.92. 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 Ltd. has a 12 month low of $74.09 and a 12 month high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

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.