Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 17.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 112,199 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,321 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $10,083,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $306,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $261,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 633.9% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 9,299 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $836,000 after buying an additional 238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 29,998 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total transaction of $2,442,137.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,264,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $102,926,255.95. This represents a 2.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 224,797 shares of company stock valued at $17,999,537 over the last 90 days. 5.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on AGO. UBS Group upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Roth Mkm cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of AGO stock opened at $74.00 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.61. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $72.76 and a fifty-two week high of $92.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.50 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.The business had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.63 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.18 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.45%.

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.