Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Cuts Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Price Target to $101.00

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) had its price objective reduced by equities researchers at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $103.00 to $101.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price target suggests a potential upside of 19.79% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on AGO. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Roth Capital cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.67.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.2%

NYSE:AGO opened at $84.31 on Friday. Assured Guaranty has a 1 year low of $72.76 and a 1 year high of $92.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $78.01 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $82.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 0.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The company had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.18 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. The trade was a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total transaction of $3,931,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 256,251 shares in the company, valued at $20,146,453.62. The trade was a 16.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $252,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 160 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $542,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. Finally, Prelude Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

About Assured Guaranty

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.