Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Bought by Long Focus Capital Management LLC

Long Focus Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 14.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 320,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Assured Guaranty comprises about 0.9% of Long Focus Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th largest position. Long Focus Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $27,088,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. MAI Capital Management lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,856 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $496,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 37.0% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 173 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 12.9% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $154,000 after buying an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 6.6% in the third quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,413 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $288,000 after buying an additional 212 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.00.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 4,562 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $14.31, for a total transaction of $65,282.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 5,269,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,409,263.90. This trade represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,219 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total transaction of $106,223.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 8,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $723,000.58. The trade was a 12.81% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 11,920 shares of company stock worth $261,214. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 0.2%

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $83.56 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $74.09 and a 1-year high of $92.39. The company has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 8.16 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $86.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.78. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 45.31% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The business had revenue of $277.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $205.83 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 77.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 6th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.84%.

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.