Assured Guaranty’s (AGO) “Buy (B-)” Rating Reiterated at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings reaffirmed their buy (b-) rating on shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) in a report released on Friday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen cut Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. UBS Group cut their target price on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Assured Guaranty currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $98.50.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $82.39 on Friday. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $74.09 and a one year high of $96.50. The company has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.10 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $82.29 and its 200 day moving average price is $83.96.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.57 by ($0.56). The business had revenue of $281.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.91 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%.Assured Guaranty’s revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.44 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 15.03%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total value of $105,760.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,282,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,282,598.60. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,287,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $107,956,525.49. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 79,089 shares of company stock valued at $5,599,792. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.2% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Choreo LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.2% in the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $373,000 after purchasing an additional 132 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.9% in the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 7,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $629,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares during the period. MAI Capital Management boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 17.8% in the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 5,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $500,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.