Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $91.6667.

Several analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. Roth Capital cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $103.00 to $101.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, 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.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $85.47 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.81 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $82.21. Assured Guaranty has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.The firm had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.63 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.18 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the company’s 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 directly owned 256,251 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,146,453.62. This represents a 16.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 242,718 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.72 per share, with a total value of $5,999,988.96. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 156.4% in the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,743,000 after buying an additional 30,208 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth about $1,446,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth about $51,538,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted 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 during the period. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 138.3% during the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 31,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 18,250 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.