Insider Selling: Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) COO Sells $3,931,000.00 in Stock

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total value of $3,931,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 256,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,146,453.62. The trade was a 16.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

NYSE:AGO opened at $76.08 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $74.18 and a 52 week high of $92.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.74 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $82.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.47.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results 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 return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.The company had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.55 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is currently 17.45%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AGO. Weiss Ratings upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Roth Mkm downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.33.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $252,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,856 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.