VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Makes New Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 29,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,596,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned 0.06% of Assured Guaranty at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $293,632,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,138,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $99,156,000 after buying an additional 3,588 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 12.1% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,012,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,206,000 after buying an additional 109,282 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,000,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $88,167,000 after buying an additional 10,567 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 581,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,267,000 after buying an additional 48,631 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $82.60 on Wednesday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $74.09 and a one year high of $96.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.13 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $82.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $83.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.57 by ($0.56). Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. The firm had revenue of $281.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $203.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 39.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $98.50.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value of $3,260,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were 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 $89,282,598.60. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 79,089 shares of company stock valued at $5,599,792 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Profile

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.