Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Buys Shares of 12,919 Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 12,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,036,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter worth $1,508,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth $30,108,000. Man Group plc bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at about $13,439,000. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at about $1,401,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter worth about $3,629,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $73.18 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 0.73. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $72.76 and a one year high of $92.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.28. The company has a current ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted 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 for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. Sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered 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 note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.83 per share, for a total transaction of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.