Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Position Trimmed by Hsbc Holdings PLC

Hsbc Holdings PLC trimmed its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 34.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 50,993 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 26,594 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $4,607,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $169,483,000 after purchasing an additional 42,311 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $131,589,000 after buying an additional 131,195 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% in 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 during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter worth about $51,538,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 25.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 540,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,779,000 after acquiring an additional 108,280 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 242,718 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $24.72 per share, for a total transaction of $5,999,988.96. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 1,002,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,787,188.96. This trade represents a 31.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AGO. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Capital cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $82.29 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.45 and a beta of 0.75. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.76 and a 1 year high of $92.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $77.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $82.69.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.18 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 17.45%.

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.