De Lisle Partners LLP Acquires New Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

De Lisle Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 39,721 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,186,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,743,000 after purchasing an additional 30,208 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,446,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $51,538,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 138.3% during the 4th quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 31,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 18,250 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. The trade was a 10.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 209,388 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were acquired 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 approximately $30,096,591.98. The trade was a 20.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AGO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Roth Capital lowered shares of 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE AGO opened at $74.31 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.91 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $80.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.76 and a 52 week high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%. As a group, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

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

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.