Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 7,123 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 44.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 8,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,123 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $743,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 58.3% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $151,549,000 after purchasing an additional 660,009 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 4.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,052,906 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $91,708,000 after purchasing an additional 40,354 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at $45,606,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 60.7% in the second quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 481,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,957,000 after buying an additional 182,004 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 10.6% during the 2nd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 419,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $36,516,000 after buying an additional 40,044 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 1.0%

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $84.87 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $89.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.02. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $74.09 and a fifty-two week high of $96.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $1.03. The firm had revenue of $207.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.76 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.65% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 16.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 3,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.72, for a total value of $55,671.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,276,372 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $77,668,195.84. The trade was a 0.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold 8,437 shares of company stock worth $129,237 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $101.00.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.