Brokerages Set Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) PT at $90.33

Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $90.3333.

AGO has been the topic of a number of research reports. 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 research note on Thursday, August 13th. UBS Group upgraded 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $72.98 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a PE ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.73. Assured Guaranty has a twelve month low of $72.13 and a twelve month high of $92.39. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $79.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.02.

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. 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%. On average, analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 209,388 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. This represents a 20.88% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter worth $23,025,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth about $51,538,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after buying an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 18,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 55.0% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 40,487 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,299,000 after purchasing an additional 14,361 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is a Bermuda-based financial services company that provides financial guarantees and related credit enhancement products. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps support the repayment of debt issued by public-sector entities, infrastructure projects and other borrowers.

The company’s principal business is financial guaranty insurance, which generally protects investors against scheduled principal and interest payment defaults on insured obligations.