Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 67.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 11,838 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $466,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.3% during 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 buying an additional 42,311 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $131,589,000 after acquiring an additional 131,195 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% in the fourth 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. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,538,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 25.0% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 540,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,779,000 after purchasing an additional 108,280 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. UBS Group upgraded 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 downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Roth Capital lowered 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of AGO opened at $83.71 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $77.95 and its 200 day moving average price is $82.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.61 and a beta of 0.75. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.18 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.45%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $691,696.24. The trade was a 10.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 242,718 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $24.72 per share, for a total transaction of $5,999,988.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 1,002,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,787,188.96. This represents a 31.94% increase in their position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty 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.