Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Upgraded to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Roth Mkm restated a buy rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Assured Guaranty from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and raised their target price for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO stock opened at $77.94 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $78.66 and a 200 day moving average of $80.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty has a 1 year low of $58.27 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 13.19% and a net margin of 61.17%. The company’s revenue was down 43.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty will post 6.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth $46,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 24.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments.