Quantbot Technologies LP Makes New Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,402 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $593,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at $463,926,000. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $169,483,000 after acquiring an additional 42,311 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $131,589,000 after acquiring an additional 131,195 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,480,000 after acquiring an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,538,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings lowered Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Roth Capital cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. 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, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE AGO opened at $75.94 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $80.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $80.94. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $72.76 and a 12-month high of $92.39. The firm has a market cap of $3.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.13 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%.The firm had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 209,388 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.70% 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.