Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) CAO Laura Bieling Sells 2,649 Shares of Stock

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.76, for a total transaction of $232,476.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 13,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 1.7%

AGO opened at $86.19 on Thursday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $72.57 and a fifty-two week high of $96.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a PE ratio of 6.70 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company’s 50-day moving average is $85.21 and its 200 day moving average is $88.44.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.03. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The firm had revenue of $345.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $257.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th will be given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is currently 16.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after acquiring an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter worth about $203,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at about $205,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 479.3% in the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 41,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,607,000 after buying an additional 33,949 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 581,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,267,000 after buying an additional 48,631 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Assured Guaranty

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.