Oak Thistle LLC Takes $613,000 Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Oak Thistle LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 7,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $613,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Invst LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the first quarter worth $669,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 28.2% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $5,920,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 43.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 170,242 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,828,000 after purchasing an additional 51,519 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,363,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO stock opened at $90.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.23 and a beta of 0.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $74.09 and a one year high of $96.50. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $86.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $84.52.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $1.03. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 40.65%.The business had revenue of $207.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.76 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 19th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 16.87%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $107,956,525.49. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 1,882 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.64, for a total transaction of $31,316.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,281,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $87,877,703.68. This represents a 0.04% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 41,929 shares of company stock valued at $2,386,674. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. UBS Group increased their price target on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.00.

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.