Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Stock Position Trimmed by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. cut its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 6,581,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 54,530 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Assured Guaranty worth $579,795,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 107,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,694,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 74,039 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,664,000 after buying an additional 6,581 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 14,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,329,000 after buying an additional 496 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 459,471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,357,000 after buying an additional 42,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $28,060,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AGO. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. UBS Group set a $92.00 target price on shares of Assured Guaranty and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 0.6%

NYSE AGO opened at $82.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.22. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $74.09 and a 12 month high of $96.50. The company has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released 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 return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%. The business had revenue of $281.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $203.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.03%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value of $3,260,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,778,749.28. This trade represents a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 71,917 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.11, for a total transaction of $6,192,772.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,348,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $116,082,566.03. This trade represents a 5.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 122,355 shares of company stock worth $10,352,198. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.