Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning.

Separately, UBS Group raised their target price on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

NYSE:AGO opened at $91.02 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $82.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 1.10. Assured Guaranty has a 12-month low of $65.39 and a 12-month high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The company had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 214.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 16,956 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the third quarter worth about $1,595,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1.6% during the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 7,161 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $748,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.