Royce & Associates LP Sells 52,442 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Royce & Associates LP decreased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 983,385 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 52,442 shares during the period. Assured Guaranty makes up approximately 0.9% of Royce & Associates LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th largest position. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $88,377,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 633.9% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1,080.6% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 670 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 476.1% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 772 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $65,000 after buying an additional 638 shares during the period. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth $68,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on AGO shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Roth Mkm downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.33.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 29,998 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $2,442,137.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,264,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,926,255.95. This represents a 2.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 242,718 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $24.72 per share, with a total value of $5,999,988.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 1,002,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,787,188.96. This trade represents a 31.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 224,969 shares of company stock worth $18,027,948. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $76.93 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $74.18 and a fifty-two week high of $92.39. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $80.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $85.26. The company has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a PE ratio of 8.83 and a beta of 0.81.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The firm had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 17.45%.

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.