California Public Employees Retirement System Has $8.12 Million Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 2.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 108,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,159 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.19% of Assured Guaranty worth $8,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at about $174,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at about $211,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at about $225,000. Finally, Pathstone Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at about $232,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total value of $5,083,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

NYSE:AGO opened at $77.87 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $49.84 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.28 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $85.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.15 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.00%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Assured Guaranty Company 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.