Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Takes $235,000 Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 3,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $235,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $174,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the third quarter worth $211,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at $225,000. Pathstone Family Office LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at $232,000. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 3,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $240,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on AGO. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, April 1st.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $78.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.36 and a beta of 1.12. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $49.84 and a 52-week high of $96.60. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $86.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $76.34.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $4.57. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.15 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.42%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.00%.

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.