Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Price Target Cut to $84.00 by Analysts at UBS Group

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) had its target price cut by UBS Group from $102.00 to $84.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and lifted their price target for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Roth Mkm reiterated a buy rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO stock traded down $0.48 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $74.00. 408,585 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 397,703. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.71 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty has a 12-month low of $56.77 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 0.97.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 57.45% and a return on equity of 12.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 6.45 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.58%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 40,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.12, for a total transaction of $3,124,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,410,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,213,570.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter valued at $1,141,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1,990.0% during the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 60,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,308,000 after buying an additional 57,928 shares during the period. Wealthstar Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 279.2% during the 1st quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 15,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after buying an additional 11,358 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 42.7% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 24,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after buying an additional 7,222 shares during the period. Finally, Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter valued at $885,000. 92.22% of the stock is 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.