Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 311,746 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $28,060,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned about 0.61% of Assured Guaranty as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $238,000. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 21,508 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,935,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1,794.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,497 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 1,418 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 208.5% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,524 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 103.4% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,568 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after acquiring an additional 4,864 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. UBS Group raised their target price on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $86.32 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.57 and a twelve month high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $87.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a PE ratio of 6.71 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.94%.

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.