Corient Private Wealth LLC Trims Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Corient Private Wealth LLC cut its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 17.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 17,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,839 shares during the quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,587,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AGO. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 214.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after buying an additional 16,956 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 719,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,740,000 after acquiring an additional 66,487 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth approximately $250,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 50.7% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 434,173 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,525,000 after purchasing an additional 146,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,367,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.4 %

AGO opened at $88.11 on Wednesday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.64. The firm has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.85 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $199.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. On average, equities analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.94%.

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.