Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Hold Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

Separately, UBS Group upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $91.02 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Assured Guaranty has a fifty-two week low of $65.39 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The stock has a market cap of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $83.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $79.74.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. The business had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The company’s revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.42 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 13.2% during the third quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 981,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,020,000 after buying an additional 114,308 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 977,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $77,751,000 after acquiring an additional 71,114 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,670,000 after acquiring an additional 2,953 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 37.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 678,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,322,000 after purchasing an additional 184,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,026,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.