Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Sells 977 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 32,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 977 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,448,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,141,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,035,000. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,935,000 after buying an additional 21,025 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,882,000 after buying an additional 67,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambria Investment Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,784,000 after buying an additional 12,621 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,099,662.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $77.88 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $49.84 and a 1-year high of $96.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.28 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50-day moving average is $85.81 and its 200 day moving average is $76.37.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The company had revenue of $233.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.00%.

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.